LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



"1 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



A 
COMPILATION 

OF THE 

STEPHEXS MEDAL 

PRIZE ORATIONS 

OF 

THE MISSOURI STATE UNIVERSITY. 

WITH BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF THE ORATORS 



EUGEXE L. KASTER 



OTTAW 



I S1 

A KANSJ / V C 4 7V 



7 

KE33LER & MCALLISTER. 



1884. 







Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1884 by 

EUGENE L. RASTER, 
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 



PREFACE. 



The great interest exhibited in the annual Ora- 
torical contests, of the University of Missouri, has 
induced the publication of this work. Great pains 
have been taken to make this volume as complete as 
circumstances would permit. To claim for a moment 
that it is perfect would be presumptuous. The few 
typographical errors are such, as are liable to be de- 
tected in almost any work, and the reader will find 
them no obstacle to a clear understanding of The sub- 
ject. Our thanks are extended to ]\Ir. J. H. Drum- 
mond and others, of Columbia, who have aided us 
in the preparation of this volume. 

George II. Coffman deserves mention as having 
contributed an original poem of great merit. 

Believing that this book will meet with the gen- 
erous approval of all who take an interest in the 
greatest Educational Institution of the West, it is 
submitted to the public. 

E. L. K. 

Columbia, Missouri, June, 1884. 



CONTENTS. 



Page 

Defense of the Goths and Vandals, . . 1 

The Modern Rivals, ... 6 

The World Moves, . . .12 

Principles and their Defenders. . 20 

" Those Whom the World calls Weak." . 26 

The Statesman, . . . 36 

Ministry of Poetry, . .41 

" Let there be Light," . . 49 

"Man the Shekimah," . . . 54 

The Ruins of Time, . . 61 

William the Silent and Free Worship, . 71 

The Great Problem, . . 77 

Woman, .... .86 

Goldsmith as a Humorist, . . 95 

Biographical Sketches, . . . 107 



DEFENSE OF THE GOTHS AND 
VANDALS. 



BY W. A. LENTZ. 



CLASSICAL students, bewildered and dazzled by the 
gorgeous picture of Koman civilization, have for 
centuries abused the Goths and Vandals, as the bar- 
barous destroyers of a glory never to return. While 
we would not detract from the fame of the countries, 
which gave birth to Demosthenes and Cicero, yet we 
would inquire, — as to the real character of those 
barbarous nations ; whether they really deserve the 
odium heaped upon them by the admirers of classic 
lore and customs ; whether indeed the licentious and 
effeminate Komans were, in reality, any less barbarous 
than their broad-shouldered hard-handed conquerers. 
A magnificent race of men were those war sons of the 
old north. 

They may have been barbarians, but it was a grand 
barbarism, the germ of a noble civilization. Of pro- 
digious energy, they had a strong passion for freedom 



2 STEPHENS MEDAL 

individual and civil ; and with their thirst for fame they 
were wonderfully pliant and malleable in their admix- 
tures with the people they overran. The hommage of 
our Gothic ancestors to the weaker sex had no prece- 
dent among the nations of antiquity ; and the devoted 
sentiment of those rude barbarians puts to shame the 
boasted refinement of Greece and Borne. A thorough 
knowledge, of the transactions of barbarous ages, will 
throw more light than is generally imagined on the 
laws of modern times. Wherever these northern bar- 
barians settled, they carried with them, their native 
genius, their original manners and the first rudiments 
of the political system which has since prevailed in 
different parts of Europe. They established mon- 
archy and liberty, subordination and freedom ; the 
prerogative of the prince and the rights of the subject, 
all united in so bold a combination that the fabric, in 
some places ; stands to this hour, the wonder of 
mankind. 

The British constitution, says Montesquieu, came 
out of the woods of Germany. The same writer in 
speaking of his own country declares, it impossible to 
form an adequate notion of the French monarchy 
without a previous inquiry into the manners, genius 
and spirit of the German nations. Much that was 
incorporated with the institutions of those fierce inva- 



PRIZE ORATIONS. 6 

ders has flowed down the stream ot time and still 
mingles with our modern jurisprudence. Man is 
naturally a worshiper, and is elevated according to 
the being he worships. The Greeks and Romans wor- 
shiped gods made of wood and stone ; and even deified 
some of their emperors. The religion of the Germans 
was more spiritual. Go with us in imagination to 
the woods of ancient Germany, and behold those 
hardy sons of nature bowing in adoration to spiritual 
beings, and not to stocks and stones. Tacitus says, that 
they invoke under the name of gods, that mysterious 
existence, which they see with the eye of reverence 
alone. In point of morals the few plain maxims, 
which regulated their conduct, had a greater efficacy 
in recommending good and deterring from evil, than 
the ambiguous systems of ethics, which were founded 
on the doctrines of the Romanic teachers. 

A people thus bold, vigorous and free, strong in 
will and thought and feeling, simple in manners, eleva- 
ted in religion, barbarous though they were, deserve, 
surely not wholesale denunciation. And for the work 
they did ; for which the curse decended upon them, 
until vandalism means all that is atrocious : what 
is it? They swept away the proud vestiges of the 
empire of the Csesars, and what was the empire 
-but a loathsome corruption, fit only for destruction ? 



4 STEPHENS MEDAL 

As the universal empire of Rome had grown out of 
civil war, so was it being fast undermined by discord 
and competition ; and could not by any great turn, 
have retarded the doom which was written on her 
drooping energies prescribed by internal decay and 
not all by external assault. That age was a rotting 
and aimless chaos of sensuality and anarchy. There 
was needed some infusion, of new and healthier blood, 
into the veins of a world drained and tainted by the 
influence of Rome. In the race of degenerate slaves, 
who at the time of the Gothic conquest, still arrogated 
the Roman name, every spark of manly courage, and 
intellectual force, had been been totally extinguished. 
The pillaged wealth and contagious luxury of the 
East had debauched the simplicity of Roman manners, 
sapped the very vitals of the mighty nation ; had 
crushed the last image of liberty- and political virtue ; 
and the empire had gradually swollen into a huge 
mass of voluptuousness and depravity. An abject and 
lethargic submission, everywhere, extended the influ- 
ence of the same effeminate vices, under the degrad- 
ing despotism of the Caesars. The Roman world had 
sunk into such a state of utter corruption that noth- 
ing less than a total dissolution of the existing ele- 
ments of society, could have rekindled her moral 
vitality, and reanimated her mental powers. The 



FRIZE ORATIONS. 5 

vigor of the barbarian character, and institutions 
infused a new and healthful spirit, into a diseased 
and sluggish body. 

Those Gothic nations took with them the very 
materials which were required for building up a future 
Christendom. Without the new element of vital pow- 
er, furnished by the northern immigrations, nothing 
would have regenerated the degraded people of Rome. 
The alliance between the vigorous, healthy, and native 
intellectual energy of Germany, with the rapidly de- 
caying civilization of Rome, was productive of the 
mightiest and most beneficial results. 

Such was the character of the nations, who swept 
away the crumbling ruins of "Imperial Rome," and 
removed that huge mass of gilded licentiousness, and 
effeminate depravity. Such were the germs, which 
produced the vigorus and graceful shoots of modern 
civilization, and formed the foundations of all modern 
governments. While we glory in classic culture and 
elegance and grace ; and lament that so much that 
was beautiful perished in the wild blood that swept 
from the north. We should not, remembering our 
own Saxon blood, forget to pay a tribute of respect to 
the strength and vigor, the freedom and earnestness^, 
of the Goth and Vandal, conquerers of Rome. 



THE MODERN RIVALS. 



BY BENTLEY H. BUNYAN. * 



NATIONAL prosperity is bat a stepping stone to a 
nation's troubles. Its prosperity induces competi- 
tion ; competition begets rivalry ; and the name of 
rival is sufficient to awaken the jealousy, hatred and 
heartless schemes of its superiors. Rome, the land of 
national virtue, casting her eyes across the Mediterra- 
nean, beheld the republic of Carthage, whose dominion 
of the deep, and superiority in naval strength, pouring 
the most unbounded wealth into the lap of the queen 
of the western seas, excited her jealousy and cupidity. 
The waters between were not broad enough to conceal 
the glory and magnificence which appeared on the 
African shore, or deep enough to quench the fires of 
ambition and rivalry in the Roman heart. Rome 
persecuted Carthage to its destruction. The evil 
examples of nations live after them, while the good is 
often buried in their ruins. This same spirit lives 
* Deceased. 6 



PRIZE ORATIONS. 7 

to-day. England the mother of nations imitates well 
the example of iiome ; regarding few as equals, ac- 
knowledging no superior, she looks with a jealous eye 
upon the actions of her sisters, and draws close the 
reins of national authority. Professing to be the 
home of liberty, sue joins the despots of Europe in 
crushing out the spirit of French freedom — Napoleon 
is banished to St. Helena, and English freedom is safe. 

With a navy whose immensity peopled the mighty 
deep, an army brave and devoted, a court reveling in 
Oriental splendor, yet she trembled. Across the 
waters was heard the prattle of an infant nation, 
planted by her despotism, nourished by her tyranny, 
strengthened by an equilization of every political 
advantage, the home of the oppressed of every clime, 
of the martyrs of every creed, of the victims of any 
imperious and all grasping tyranny. She trembled for 
the safety of her royal authority, fearful that it would 
be overthrown by the patriots and pioneers of repub- 
lican liberty ; men who dared to think and act 
regardless of the frowns and threats of the Ocean 
Queen. England having an ardent admiration for the 
imperial adjective English, watched with the vigil- 
ance of an Argus, the English colonies of America. 

Whatever differences there may be in English 
society, there is one point where they all meet upon 



8 STEPHENS MEDAL 

the American platform of equality. They all agree 
in being English, all agree in having a common con- 
tempt for everything not English. With them liberty 
is English ; wisdom is English ; religion is English ; 
earth, air and hell are English. And this imperial 
dogmatism is wholy destitute of that uneasy self 
distrust which keeps through the vociferous boasting 
of corresponding American phenomenon. England 
regarded the kingdoms of the old world with a 
haughty contempt, while she looked upon the new, a 
country having the same religion, governed by the 
same laws, speaking the same language, with a special 
rivalry. The colonies rested proud and content be- 
neath the shadow of England. In their wildest 
dreams, Fancy never pictured upon the canvas of the 
Future, a general confederation ; a free, powerful and 
independent nation feared by tyrants, loved by their 
subjects. America and her republican institutions, 
her ever onward and upward march to greatness, have 
ever been objects of jealousy to despots and their 
frowning votaries. Occupying the post of 7ianor,iiL 
this crusade against the liberties of mankind, stands 
England. Various and powerful have been the schemes 
which she has devised for the submission of the 
grand superstructure of American Liberty. 

As the colonies grew rich England tried to inter- 



PRIZE OPvATIOXS. 9 

fere with their manufactures, and monopolize their 
trade. It was unjust as it was foolish. The proof of 
this, is the noble trade that has sprung into existence 
since England has lost all power of checking the course 
of nature. She taxed the colonies in defiance of the 
first principles of English government. Forgetting, in 
her blind conceit, that the Xorman Saxon lived beyond 
her own narrow borders, she wantonly sported with 
the rights of the colonies. She endeavored to fill her 
own coffers by impoverishing the weak. Demand 
followed demand. The colonies stood tottering, upon 
the verge of ruin, ere the standard of rebellion was 
raised. Trusting in the justness of her cause, and the 
God of battles, she sent her sons to the tented fields, 
and our republic stands to-day a lasting monument 
of British oppression and American virtue. 

The rapid advance of American commerce shook 
England's supremacy to its centre, — hence followed 
her demands of the right of search, and the impress- 
ing of American seamen ; demands infamous as 
unjust. Confident in the power of her navy, she 
turned a deaf ear to the pleadings of justice; war 
followed. England stood the acknowledged mistress 
of the sea ; yet every American bosom swells with 
emotion, at the recollection of the exploits of Perry 
and Bainbridge. 'Not did the triumphs cease here. 



10 STEPHENS MEDAL 

The cross of England is trailed in defeat, while the 
emblem of freedom is unfurled triumphantly on the 
plains of Louisiana ; another rebuke to English cu- 
pidity. Yet England's rivalry does not cease here. 
■Go with me, if you will, to the halls of congress and 
listen to the venerable Madison, as he discloses the 
schemes of England for destroying our government 
by a disunion of its parts ; and tell me if you do not 
see the germs of the great civil strife that has dyed 
the southern soil with the blood of America's noblest 
sons ; tell me if demagogues supported by British gold 
did not first sow the seeds of sectional hate, nurture 
and feed it until civil war, with all its horrors, burst 
upon us ! Tell me if England's treachery did not 
prolong it. 

But the dark cloud has passed. Again the stars 
and stripes wave from the broad Atlantic to the Pacif- 
ic, again the eagle sits wjth folded wings above our 
banners, and war and strife are ended. The Future 
lies before us. What is to be the destiny of the two 
great rivals? We can only judge the Future by the 
Past. The light of Borne went out on the altar of 
centralization. Is such to be the end of the seaborn 
empire, upon whose limitless bounds the sun never 
sets ? Let the past give the answer. The future glory 
of our republic depends upon the prosperity of its 



PRIZE ORATIONS. 11 

members. We have passed through the firey furnace 
of war. Brother has been arrayed against brother ; 
father against son ; state against state. Nature seems 
to be ashamed of the scene, and 'tries to efface all 
marks and signs of war, or to veil them to the vision, 
with a mantle of moss or the " long green leaves of the 
graceful fern." Let him who loves his country, who 
desires to see her occupy the zenith of national influ- 
ence, follow this example pregnant with charity and 
wisdom ; bury all hatred ; forget all animosities and 
once more live and work in peace, harmony and 
brotherly love. Let it not be said of the American 
Kepublic, that she has a mind but not a heart. 



THE WORLD MOVES, 



BY R. W. GENTRY. * 



WE live in a universe of change. 
"Every moment has its seperate history ; and the 
history of no two moments is the same." Change is 
nature's fundamental law. Is it not recorded in the 
strata of the eternal hills? Is it not traced in the 
wave-worn rocks of the ocean shore? Is it not breath- 
ed upon the flowers, painted upon the cheek of youth, 
and stamped upon the brow of age ? Is it not carved 
upon the dome of every temple, and upon the fretted 
fringe of every column reared by man? Everywhere 
above, around and beneath us — his unfeeling, and 
relentless iconoclast leaves his destroying foot-print. 

To what, principle, to what superintending intel- 
ligence, does he render homage? Is that intelligence 
wise and philanthropic ; and have these changes been 
for the better? Or is there no guiding intelligence? 
As to the physical world the change is known to have 

* Deceased. 12 



PRIZE ORATIONS. 13 

foeen one of progress. Step by step the great plan has 
been unfolded ; first a chaos, then a nebulae, then a 
cluster of stars, then a cosmos. "First a wilderness, 
then a battle field with savage nature, and more savage 
man ; then a harvest field ; then a mart of commerce, 
and lastly, the museum and hall of knowledge and 
delight." 

Tradition, in olden times always located the golden 
age in the past, but if this world be the work of an 
All- wise Creator, the golden age is in our future, and 
the millennium is not simply a poetic fancy or a 
philanthropic dream, but a reality. Tradition gives 
way before the geologist, and his hammer ; and the 
gold of the legend is replaced by the flint of the chem- 
ist. The antiquarian draws the curtain aside and the 
cheat is detected ; the world's progress is. revealed. 
The stone age heads the list, next comes the iron age, 
and then the age of bronze ; when history becomes so 
busy with herself, that, she ceases to name her eras, 
and leaves us to ask in what part of the series do we 
stand? Is this the golden age? Pestilence stalking 
over the land, says no ; wars and rumors of wars say 
no ; ignorance spread broadcast over the earth says 
no : communism, with its hydra head, in imagination 
already stained with the blood of tyrants and alas ! 
too with the life blood of every thing dear to human- 
ity, says no ! 



14 STEPHENS MEDAL 

Has there, then, been universal progTess ? Does the 
retrospect warrant a hopeful prospect? Is life after 
all worth the living? That there has been progress, 
not even, the gloomiest pessimist will deny. Dark as 
may be his view, nature rebukes him by emptying into 
His lap her countless luxuries. 

The locomotive and steamer bearing our products 
across continents, along rivers, and out upon the 
world's great highway, proclaim the world's progress. 
The printing press, the iron preacher, is carrying 
knowledge to every house. The electric telegraph, 
that great annihilator of space and time ; tremulous 
with the world's thought, is fast binding together the 
nations of earth and carrying knowledge, industry and 
culture into the brightest regions of the world. 

When we are delving into mother earth and read- 
ing her history in the rocks ; when with blow-pipe and 
test tube we are studying the very constitution of 
matter ; when with the telescope and tasimeter and 
spectroscope, we are peering and feeling out into 
unmeasured space, discovering system upon system of 
heavenly bodies, and ascertaining the elements of 
wiiich they are composed ; can we be persuaded that 
the world has, in her onward marsh, lost anything- 
she can ill afford to lose? What matters it if we have 
lost the art of embalming ? It is but a relic of super- 



PRIZE ORATIONS. 15 

stition ; and if the sphinx and pyramids remain to us 
a profound wonder? They are but relics of despotism 
and slavery. 

Beyond all question, then, there has been progress 
in natural truth. Has not the progress in morals and 
religion been equally great ? The pyramids and col- 
iseum are monuments of the time when muscle ruled 
the world ; when might was right. We live in an age 
of thought ; in an age, when the culture of muscle 
has given place to the culture of nerve — of brain. 

The learning and culture of classic Rome, in her 
golden age, assembled to the oft repeated butcheries 
of the amphitheater ; to-day, we shudder at the loss 
of a single life. Thus has the world progressed from 
brutality to civility and from civility to love ; from 
the culture of nerve to the culture of soul ! 

But the most characteristic advance of modern 
times is that made in the science of government. The 
history of government is a history of slavery ; a his- 
tory of despotism, aristocracy, oligarchies, nobilities, 
and the divine right of kings. And not till a century 
ago, here, in this new world of ours, was the great 
declaration made that all men are created equal. How 
slow the worrd has been in learning this great truth ! 
It is this, that is struggling for recognition to-day in 
every despotism of Europe. It can not be stifled ; it 



16 STEPHENS MEDAL 

will be heard, and woe to that government that heeds 
it not ! 

First slaves, then vassals, then subjects, then free- 
men. First a despotism, then an empire, then a king- 
dom, then a republic ! This is the order of the world's 
progress and the order will never be changed. Doubt 
it as you may, republicanism in some form or other 
is the government of the future. And may this mighty 
repu blic of ours, to-day the greatest example of the 
world, never cease to be a republic, "till the last 
sun shall set on the last eve of time!" 

In order to progress in morals, advancement must 
be made in religion. The religious element is the 
strongest element in man. It has figured most largely 
.in the world's history and is in some shape the basis 
of every civilization. The religion of every nation is 
the key note of its history. What progress, then, in 
this great element can the world boast? The past is 
strewn with the wrecks of decayed religions. The 
religions of ancient Egypt, Assyria and Babylon ; the 
mvthologies of Greece and Rome are things of the 
past. Ceres no longer superintends the golden grain. 
Appolo's tuneful lyre is unstrung ; Jupiter no longer 
hurls thunder bolts from his Olympian throne. A 
greater than all these has come. The true religion, 
though a unit, is one of progress. Judaism itself has 
been succeeded by its superior : 



PRIZE ORATIONS. 17 

" The cedars wave upon Mount Lebanon, 
But Judah's stateliest maids are gone." 

The fullness of time has come. We live in the lat- 
ter days. Christianity, the fullness, the culmination 
of all that has preceded, has come. It is tinged by no 
nationality ; it is an exotic in no latitude. It comes 
unburdened by ritual and affords room for indefinite 
growth, in that it is for all nations and for all time. It 
is divine, it is perfect, it is ultimate ; it therefore does 
not and can not make any compromises. It has de- 
stroyed kingdoms, overturned empires and overthrown 
systems of philosophy. It has civilized the savage, 
emancipated the slave and elevated woman. It has 
given birth to civil governments, lessened wars and 
established peace and order. It has triumphed over 
death, and made the grave the very gatewaj to heaven. 
It is the friend of every friend, the foe of every foe, 
of the human race. 

The progress of tne world is not the progress of 
any one nation or class of men, but of all classes and 
all nations. Nor has the world progressed by eras 
alone, but by epochs ; not only by peaceful changes, 
but by mighty convulsions ! The waves of this great 
human sea have moved to and fro ; there are times 
when things look dark, but : 

"Out of the gloom 
Future brightness is born." 



18 STEPHENS MEDAL 

The world moves ! 

Every railroad, every telegraph and every printing 
press proclaim it ; every laboratory, every cabinet 
proclaim it ; the ruins of the past proclaim it ; the 
pyramids, coliseum and parthenon proclaim it; the jury 
box, the law book, and the international congress pro- 
claim it ; every school house, every church proclaims 
it ; every asylum, every charitable institution pro- 
claims it ; every philanthropist, every missionary 
proclaims it; business, commerce, government, science, 
morals and religion all proclaim the same great truth ! 

But the end is not yet, perfection is not yet attained. 
The major portion of the earth is still either savage 
or half civilized. Science has too many hypotheses.. 
In morals there are too many conflicting codes and too 
much imperfect practice. The world is still cursed by 
many religions ; and even substitutes for religion, such 
as cosmic emotion, utilitarianism and the worship of 
humanity, are proposed. While socialism, communism 
and nihilism are threatening the very foundations of 
society itself. But these are only the ebulitions of the 
pent up fires, within, that propel the vast machine of 
progress. 

Let science, morals and religion go hand in hand, 
and as surely as the withered foliage of autumn and 
the snows of winter give place to the verdure and 



PRIZE ORATIONS. 19^ 

beauty of spring, so surely will each age of the world 
be succeeded by one of greater learning, culture and 
piety until, every nation and tribe of men shall with 
one accord join in that grand chorus, " Glory to God 
in the highest, and on earth, peace, good will toward, 
men ! " 



PRINCIPLES AND THEIR DEFENDERS. 



BY J. E. JOHNSTON. 



j * 



THE Creator governs the world on immutable and 
righteous principles. A being of infinite justice and 
goodness could not govern otherwise. The more per- 
fect man becomes, the more he conforms to the divine 
will, and consequently to the eternal principles of right. 
The foundations of the temple of truth have been 
laid deep and broad. Mind is the mighty architect, 
which with steady and skillful stroke erects this grand 
edifice ; no ephemeral structure to be swept away by 
the storms of prejudice and error; no incongruous 
mass to fall for the want of unity, but a gorgeous 
enduring edifice, destined to stand forever, the joy of 
the whole earth. Thought on thought, reason on 
reason, principle on principle, are the materials of 
this structure. Whoever from a love of knowledge, 
or for the good of the race, labors upon this edifice ; 
whoever lays the deeper its foundations, strengthens 
* Deceased. 20 



PRIZE ORATIONS. 21 

and adorns its columns, assists to raise its lofty dome 
still higher in the skies, unites himself with the truth 
adoring hosts of the past, and with them moves on to 
future triumphs. 

As the world advances, theory must yield to demon- 
stration. A false doctrine, which has for thousands 
of years been accepted as true, must at last give way 
to truth assured. Thus, theories, which destroy the 
symmetry of the grand temple, crumble away giving 
place to harmonizing principles. Pythagoras discov- 
ered that the planets ceaselessly moved in regular or- 
bits around the sun and proclaimed the fact to the 
world. The great truth fell from his lips unheeded 
and for two thousand years lay buried beneath the 
sods of prejudice. Copernicus declared it true, opposed 
by all the unreasoning world. In the face of all 
opposition he asserts his ability to bring forth the 
proofs. We can but admire the courage of the old 
man as he ascends the lofty tower to make experiments 
on which hung his destiny ; either life and honor, or 
derision and death. We see him in his solitary march, 
from star to star, firm in the consciousness of right, 
grieving that those who were so far beneath could not 
follow him in his march through the skies. Truth 
gains another victory. And in his dying hour the old 
man clasped to his lips the printed page that proclaim- 



22 STEPHENS MEDAL 

ed a groat truth which, suppressed for two thousand 
years, became the keystone in the arch of science. 

Unflinching integrity and great moral courage are 
the prime requisites of defenders of principles. It is 
often necessary that they attest with their lives the 
sincerity of their belief and their fidelity to the prin- 
ciples of the cause they maintain. Opposition and 
persecution are certain. There is not a principle in 
government, there is not a truth of science, there is 
not a tenet of religion, but has had its opponents. 
There is not a line of revealed truth, but lias been seal- 
ed by the blood of martyrs ; even by the blood of the 
Son of God. 

Are not those martyrs for principles the grandest, 
uioblest specimens of men the world has ever known. 
" Truth" says Socrates, "is never confuted ;" neither 
<can there besuccessful opposition to principles of right. 
Such is their power, that they convert their very 
•opponents to ardent defenders, changing prejudice 
'•to devotion. Devotion which follows priciple is the 
•sublimest of enthusiasm ; but grandest of all, when 
prejudice takes its flight and truth comes in to till the 
infinite capacities of the soul. The most despicable man 
is he, who stifles his convictions of right because they 
-are not popular ; who governs his actions by the 
multitude, keeping silence while a great principle of 



PRIZE ORATIONS. 23 

right is at stake, yet when it is about to become 
triumphant, throws himself in with the clamoring 
multitude, that he may ride to power on the waves 
of popular devotion. He may ride with the tide but 
with the receding wave will be stranded on the beach. 
He makes a grand mistake, who looks at the judgment 
of to-day, and forgets the bar of posterity. Take,for 
example, the servile press of our country, the greatest 
curse to our free institul ions, hound to the platform of 
a political party, simply, because it is in the majority, 
incited by the glittering hope of power; weighing 
public disorder, murderand theft in high places, in the 
scales of policy against a few paltry subscribers, 

Scurrilous when scurrility pays, and libelous when 

libel serves a purpose; boasting a free press, yet not 
daring to open their columns to condemn the wrong, 
except in a general and abstract way. 

Let us have an independent press, supported by 
men decided in opinion, men who will maintain the 
right for sell alone; men who can see the difference 
between duties and dollars, men who, when great prin- 
ciples are at stake, are willing to pledge their lives on 

the issues. 

Principles are immortal. These walls shall crum- 
ble into dust, this dome shall fall, f But the princi- 
ples which have been planted here shall endure 

t Referring to the University edifice. 



24 STEPHENS MEDAL 

through time. As the sky aspiring mountains rests 
on granite ribs of earth, as "justice and judgment 
are the habitation of the throne " of Jehovah, so must 
nations and their institutions rest on the eternal 
principles of right. 

Common times try common men, crises great men. 
Webster, by acting according to his convictions or 
duty, incurred the displeasure of his party. Friends 
became enemies. The clouds of prejudice thickened 
into blackness all around him. It was the crisis of 
his life. But there he stood, in the streets of Boston, 
defending the priciples of the constitution, hurling 
in defiance, the prejudices of a proud constituency. 
Opposition flees from such a man. His moral courage 
knows no fear, when the public good demand his ser- 
vices. 

Witness Benton, who maintaining his principles 
against powers and parties, against presidents and 
cabinets, finally gave himself a political sacrifice in 
their defence. The final triumph of the principles 
which he fell defending proves their correctness and 
his unflinching devotion to principles. 

A nation's character is the sum of the deeds of 
its great men. May the example of these not be 
lost upon us. Let statues rise to their memories and 
history write their names on her brightest pages. 



PRIZE ORATIONS. 25 

They are master workmen on the temple of truth. 
Let their counsels be obeyed. Let the republic be es- 
tablished on their principles. Then shall the unhar- 
nessed years sweep onward in their flight, to that 
glorious point, which even now, the tear-bedimmed 
eyes of a weeping nation can faintly descry. When with 
our banner high advanced, the olive branch extended 
to every people, our country, blessed among nations, 
shall be the favored of Heaven and dwelling place of 
Light and Liberty. 



"THOSE WHOM THE WORLD 
CALLS WEAK." 



BY G. H. DAVIS. 



AMOXG the many stories of the bravery and 
heroism with which the Tyrolese defended their 
rugged mountain homes, from the attacks of Napo- 
leon's armies, history records in a few simple thrilling 
words, the glorious martrydom of a cripple peasant 
boy ; how, when all other eyes were wearied with 
watching, he alone kept virgil by the signal-pile, which 
was to be the beacon light of his country's safety ; 
how, when his quick ear caught the stealthy tread of 
the approaching foe, instead of escaping into the 
surrounding gloom, the young hero never faltered ; but 
lit with his shrunken arm, the alarm blaze and his own 
death flame, and how, as his blood fed the hard soil he 
had loved so well, flash after flash from answering hill 
tops broke upon the night, until his native land was 
encompassed by a chain of fire, his countrymen arous- 

26 



PRIZE ORATIONS. 27 

» 

ed, and a whole array defeated by the dying act of one 
•of those whom the world calls weak. 

Why is it, that the simple recital of such a deed as 
this moves the deepest chords of human sympathy? 
Why is it, that when the poet, the orator, the sculptor 
or the painter wishes to send a great pulsing throb of 
pity through the heart of humanity, he chooses such a 
theme as this? 

Why is it, that a universal thrill is felt at the 
thought of victories won by those whom the world 
calls weak. It is because of a deep seated sense of 
justice in the human heart. It is the feeling of a judge 
who finds that he has condemned an innocent man. It 
is that the world acknowledges that it has condemned, 
as weak and worthless, those who are strong and true ; 
that the pure ardent patriotism of the lone young 
cripple whose torch flashed upon the dark mountain 
side, was of more avail in the hour of his country's 
need, than though he had posessed the might of Samp- 
son or worn the armour of an Archilles. It is the 
recognition upon the part of the world, that all strength 
does not lie in the apparent and ostensible ; that there 
are imponderable forces in human as well as physical 
nature and that they are as powerful in the one as 
heat and electricity in the other. It is another evi- 
dence of the gradual triumph of the immaterial over 



^O STEPHENS MEDAL 

the material, another trophy won by mind from matter 
Slowly is the world learning the lesson of wisdom 
in the grand school of experience ; opinion after 
opinion has been changed, judgment after judgment 
has been reversed, the never ceasing current of time 
is forever sweeping the broken wrecks of error into- 
the ocean of the past and the skies of passing centuries 
are forever being blackened by holocausts of the world's 
broken idols. Slowly like the gradual emerging of 
some grand continent from a primevial ocean, rise the 
resources of humanity on the view of mankind. From, 
the first brute force was recognized, then intellect be- 
came a power and still later the grand resources of the 
human soul began to dawn upon the world ; thus 
many who were weaK because their resources were 
ignored became strong when they were recognized- 
In the barbarous ages of the past woman was de- 
graded almost to the level of the brutes, but as the sun 
of civilization began to dawn over the dark valley of 
the middle ages, woman in all the loveliness of her 
character, in all the strength of her purity, came down 
the pathway of his morning beams. Flowers sprang, 
up beneath her steps, at her approach the warrior re- 
laxed his battle frown and dropped his blood stained 
weapons ; the slave threw off his fetters, the artist 
caught up his pencil, the poet his lyre ; a human 



PRIZE ORATIONS. 29 

tenderness and intelligence lighted up every face and 
the word " home " began to be sweet to the ears of men. 
To-day the philosopher seats ber upon her throne at 
the fireside clothed in the royal robes of her strong 
religious faith and pure example swajing with the 
scepter of her gentle influence the destinies of the 
nation, and crowns her the queen of the republic, the 
hopes of free institutions, and the mainstay of fiee 
government. 

Whenever some towering, far seeking intellect, stand- 
ing on the pedestal of its own originality looking far 
away from the prejudices and opinions of the time, 
descries some new resources in the broad field of its 
possessor, he becomes either a tyrant or a philanthro- 
pist. 

If a tyrant he uses his power to shut down the 
■curtains of ignorance upon a suffering world. If a 
philanthropist, he employs it to raise those curtains, 
and Jet the light of knowledge stream in on a rejoice- 
ing people. And just as surely as the philanthropist 
will receive his reward, so surely will retribution be 
meted out to the tyrant. The oppressors of the weak 
never go unpunished. Long ere the world fully real- 
ized the magic of song, Edward L, of England felt that 
though the Welsh minstrel wielded no battle ax 
.couched no spear ; nor wet his right hand in English 



30 STEPHENS MEDAL 

blood, the wild burst of his battle song and the weird 
simple music of his harp caused thousands of blades- 
to flash the brighter in the cause of freedom, and kept 
alive the spirit of liberty among the mountains of 
Wales. Edward, the I., slew the bards of Cambria. 
Green grew the grass, light lay the turf upon the breast 
of Cadwello of the silver tongue and Lewellyn of the 
gentle lay, until, another bard, the poet Gray, lifted 
with the strong hand of his fancy, one of those min- 
strels from his lowly bed and placed him in the, 

"Rock whose haughty frown 
Frowns o'er old Conway's foaming flood." 

To pour forth with all the prophetic fury of his soul, 
the curse of the bard upon Edward's ruined line. 

The world is but a grand aggregate of erring human- 
ity ; therefore its judgments cannot be unerring. It 
has called the strong weak and the weak strong. 'Nay 
it has been compelled to realize that out of seeming 
weakness strength is born. 

The world thought that the weakness of Holland 
lay in the frailty of her dykes and the proximity of the 
thundering ocean to her fertile meadows ; yet, when the 
foot of the Spanish invader was crushing out her life, 
her noble sons tore down those dykes and her ancient 
enemy, the sea, came sweeping in to her relief and 



PRIZE ORATIONS. 31 

tore the cruel Spaniards from the beleagured gates of 
Leyden. 

Fifty years ago the world said that America was 
too new, too wild and savage to have a literature ; that 
the Augustian age could never come until many cen- 
turies after the rude times of Romulus and Remus. 
Sidney Smith, in the Edinburgh Revieiv, propounded 
his famous query, ''who reads an American book?" 
Yet, who will not admit that, in history, poetry, sci- 
ence, criticisms, biographies, political and ethical dis- 
cussions, the records of travel, of taste, and of romance 
universally recognized, as high standard examples, of 
American origin now illustrate the genius and culture 
of the nation. Out of our weakness there has come 
strength. 

The wild character of our scenery, the savage 
beauty of our frontier, our lakes, the majestic flow of 
our noble rivers, winding through a measureless ex- 
panse of forest which tosses, like some mighty ocean, 
its dark billows in breezes of spring and glances like 
some vast sleeping sea, its thousand hued foliage in an 
autumnal sun ; our fertle bosomed, far stretching 
prairies, the deep toned song of spray-dashing Xiagara, 
the poet of our waters, the grand and glorious beauty 
of our fair young continent ; and the very fact of 
standing out from the chilling shadow of the time- 



32 STEPHENS MEDAL 

honored custom and soul-fettering ceromonies of the 
past, in the warm influence of free institutions, has 
given a freedom, an originality, a scope and power of 
thought, to the minds of our authors, and lent a fresh- 
ness, a brilliancy and luxuriance of fancy to their 
pages which neither the smoothed shaven lawns, the 
well regulated parks, the closely trimmed groves of 
England, nor all the cathedrals of the continent can 
inspire. 

To-day our gray haired poet of the woods has taken 
down with his trembling hands the huge mossy harp 
of the blind old man of Scions' Isle, which too many 
English bards have essayed to strike in vain. His first 
wild notes carried the world back to the old Homeric 
times and as his heart warmed with the true Homeric 
fire, and that ancient harp rang out its olden melody, 
a long forgotten strain of music seemed to sweep over 
the hearts of men ; the spirit of the present became 
blended with the spirit of the past, and the skillful 
hand of our master poet had rolled back the waves of 
civilization until they reached no further than the 
shores of Greece. 

When we bid a last farewell to the sweet minstrel 
of the western woods, and he goes to sleep, with his 
twin brother Homer, in the poets corner of the shad- 
owy land of the past ; he will take the old harp with 



PKIZE ORATIONS. 33 

"him, no mortal hand will ever strike it again. It will 
hang above them as they lightly slumber, and it shall 
vibrate only to the breezy fingers of grand old mother 
nature, as she sings a lullaby to her sleeping poet 
children. 

The opinion of the world, then, is not infallible ; the 
records of the past show that there may be mistaken 
judgments of the present which will yet be reversed 
in the future. 

The world sitting in judgment upon the destinies of 
two great nations declared that Trance though shock- 
ingly destitute of those immaterial resources which 
constitute a nation's strength ; though she has deep- 
seated in her social system the canker of infidelity 
though all faith in what is good, all reverence for 
what is pure, all relish for what is natural, has died 
out of her heart, will yet succeed in establishing a 
republic within her borders ; but that Ireland, is doom- 
ed to perpetual slavery. 

And yet can it be that all the blood of pure patri- 
ots, which has stained the turf of Ireland, has been 
shed in vain ? May we not hope that the green island ; 
from whose bosom so many noble, gallant men have 
sprung, whose statesmen have held English parliaments 
spell-bound, whose sons have fallen in so many battles 
beneath the red cross of England, whose poets have 
sung so sweetly and so well, that, 



34 STEPHENS MEDAL 

"Their tyrants themselves as they rivet their chains, 
Listen to the songs of their captives and weep/' 

may yet be free, and the grand banner yet hang in 
the halls of a proud republic. 

Let him who battles for right, truth and justice 
never tremble at ful min at ions, from the ocular lips of 
the world's wealth and power ; and though his banner 
be torn to shreds, his good blade broken and he him- 
self forced to the knee, let him never despair, let him 
remember that the opinions-of the world are mutable 
and transient and that truth is immutable and eternal, 
and will in the end prevail. 

There is prevalent among all classes of humanity 
a desire to be ranked with those whom the world calls 
strong, and a dread of being numbered with those 
whom the world calls weak. Yet why should we 
shrink from joining the grand toiling suffering army, 
which though veiled in obscurity fights the battles and 
achieves the victories of the world? Is it nobler to 
win the world's praise than to procure the green island 
its benefit-? Is not a hero, a hero though God alone 
sees him. 

Is it not better to have the tears of one grateful 
heart, shed over our graves, than the hollow thunders 
of the world's applause roll over them ? What though 
no poet embalms our name in verse, no painter traces- 



PIIIZE ORATIONS. 35 

with glowing pencil our deeds upon material canvas? 
Old mother earth with kindly arms will gather us to 
her gentle bosom ; many-voiced nature with moaning 
trees, her foaming ocean and thundering cataracts will 
chant our requiem. 

The tinted skies of sunset and of morn will keep 1 
our memories fresh in the hearts of those we love ; and 
when all these are passed away our consciences will 
wear the approving seal of those grand principles of 
right which last forever. 



THE STATESMAN. 



BY J. It. LETCHER. 



OF all the positions which man is called upon to fill 
in his relations to his fellow man, the state more 
than any other, offers an opportunity for the develop- 
ment of genius in every phase, — yet history furnishes 
but few instances wherein it can he said that he has 
demonstrated his ability to properly conduct its affairs. 
The clashing interests, of society and the many compli- 
cated and often contrary demands arising out of them, 
where duty and justice are constantly opposed to grat- 
itude and inclination, must ever make the profession 
of the statesman neither easy nor enviable. 

Statesmanship in its present form is comparatively 
a new science. Previous to the close of the fifteenth 
century, which marks the great era of change in the 
political as well as in the moral and religious mind of 
Europe, eminence and influence were denied the non- 
noble and conceded to the noble only in war. Surroun- 



PRIZE ORATIONS. 37 

dedby jealous and usurping barons, the monarch was 
refused the privilege of delegating his authority, states- 
manship became possible only on the throne,— and. 
royalty formed "a school too narrow to allow of the 
progress or even existence of that important science." 
There were, it is true, legislators, — there were war- 
riors, — there were financiers who undertook to raise' 
the state revenue as a matter of private speculation 
but minds uniting all these various species of knowl- 
edge and capable of binding their several interests 
into one could not be found except upon the throne. 
and rarely there. 

The statesman should learn to accommodate him- 
self to circumstances, — an essential element of suc- 
cess in this as in every other profession, — yet how 
often we see great talents, intense labor and long 
meditation employed in a struggle against the spirit of 
the age, and employed if not absolutely in vain, at 
least with doubtful success and feeble applause. The 
statesman may regulate himself by events, but it is 
seldom, that he can cause events to regulate them- 
selves by him. Often such men have only a choice of 
evils and in the adoption of either discontent is cer- 
tain, benefit doubtful. 

The statesman should be a man of principle,— 
morality in public affairs has much greater latitude 



38 STEPHENS MEDAL 

than in private, but it is always judicious not to make 
use of that without extreme precaution, — for there is 
nothing except success which justifies it, and who can 
be answerable for success? Is it not lamentable to 
think what a gulf of impracticability must ever sepa- 
rate men of principle whom offices want, from men of 
no principle who want offices? The responsibility of 
persons intrusted with public authority is an immuta- 
ble rule and can not be violated without injury to the 
commonwealth. In our day no statesman can hope 
that corrupt principles will escape a vigilance that 
never sleeps and an industry that never wearies — the 
free press. 

The statesman should be an orator, — that art winch 
has exerted such an influence in the world's history, is 
regarded by many as absolutely necessary for those 
who participate in the affairs of State. In ancient 
times this was true, — but in this age of progress when 
#11 questions of vast import are rehearsed to the peo- 
ple in the metalic tones of press and wire, the cadence 
• of speech and the graces of action are silent, while the 
rthoughts of the orator alone hold. sway over the minds 
of men, yet the orator who appeals to the head rather 
than the heart, who resorts to argument and not to 
sophistry, who would "rather convince without per- 
suading than persuade without convincing," is an 



PRIZE ORATIONS. 39 

-exception to all rules and would succeed in all times. 

The statesman should be a patriot, — he should 
possess a patriotism that ever prompts to service, that 
suppresses narrow, selfish instincts and stimulates 
others to generous endeavor, — a patriotism that im- 
bibes the country's life by the study of its origin and 
growth, its outward and internal history,- that favors 
the education of the people, the enlightenment of the 
suffrage, the elevation of the popular character, and 
the awakening of a healthier sentiment, indispensible 
to the preservation of constitutional liberty, — a pa- 
triotism based upon the useful, the holy, the just, the 
true and the beautiful, those great forces that embrace 
all there is of human power, whether it thinks in the 
mind, thrills in the nerve or is developed in the muscle, 
and never losing sight of the fact that all these are 
better made in accordance with the laws of their 
Author than under those imposed by mere govern- 
mental agency. Patriotism is not only a legitimate sen- 
timent, but a duty, - -rightly used "it is the sure and 
necessary bulwark and support of civil communities." 

The greatness of a nation mainly depends on the 
greatness of its natural advantages and the use it 
makes of them. The highest gifts of heaven avail 
nothing unless skillfully and energetically appropri- 
ated, and the manner of this appropriation depends 



40 STEPHENS MEDAL 

upon the statesman. Respecting the accomplishment 
of these ends he should not be content to have his 
views merely known, — but should labor with his pen, 
his tongue, by personal exertion and political sacrifices 
of power and popularity to have his views prevail over 
the public mind. The mere promulgation of an ab- 
stract truth is not all that is required, — but to fit that 
truth upon the body politic or incorporate it into the 
social fabric requires profound judgment, clearness of 
vision, firmness of character, unremitting effort and a 
high moral integrity. It is not enough to have glori- 
ous ends -the statesman should ever strenuously insist 
upon the necessity of worthy means. He must know 
and feel that he has a country and with that sagacity 
which enables him to see " the top of distant thoughts 
which men of common stature can not see" he must 
apply the resources of the state to the common weal,, 
confident of the result, and trusting to time and public- 
justice for his vindication and his fame : 

" The laurels on his honored brow 
In age shall nourish and with time shall grow.''" 



MINISTRY OF POETRY. 



BY MISS ELLA DIMMITT. 



IX order to fully appreciate the ministry of poetry, it 
maybe necessary to be somewhat methodical in a 
classification of the arts in general, and these may be 
arranged into two classes, the useful and the ornamen- 
tal. To the former class belong those employed by 
man in securing the comforts of life. To the latter 
those which contribute to his pleasures. This latter 
class, less numerous than the first, though of wider 
application, includes what are called the fine arts," 
namely: painting, sculpture, music and poetry. 
Though this division be accepted, the line of demarca- 
tion can not be too sharply defined. Like the colors of 
the spectrum, they fade into each other by insensible 
degrees. Many things designed for use afford abun- 
dant scope for ornament, and many things whose 
prime object is to please, are not thereby rendered 
unfit for use. It has been said that the foundation of 



42 STEPHENS MEDAL 

the tine arts was laid in the luxuries of life, and that 
they flourish only in countries long freed from want 
and barbarism. This may be true with regard to 
painting, sculpture, and music, as sciences, but we 
have every proof that the earliest history of poetry is 
identical with the earliest history of man. The useful 
arts are acquired by study, while the impulse that is 
to make a poet, a painter or a sculptor must come 
from within. 

As no two persons see the same rainbow, so no two 
persons agree in their views as to what constitutes 
poetry. What is poetry for one may be the plainest 
prose for another. The highest ambition of prose is 
merely to express the plain simple facts, while poetry 
performs a ministry of love, smoothing, ornamenting 
and making beautiful and lovely the rough paths of 
weary man. The true poet wields a mighty weapon, 
for his advantage and elevation all nature is laid 
under contribution. He whispers an incantation and 
legions of spirits on glittering wings fly to his aid ! 
He waves his magic wand and all opposition kneels 
quicKly at his feet ! Does he frown ? Gloom and de- 
spair envelop all things. Does he smile? The very 
skies become wonderfully bright. In answer to the 
question, is the poet's mission an ordinary one? We 
have only to remind you that God Himself is a poet. 



PRIZE ORATIONS. 43 

He never speaks in prose, but communicates with us 

by signs, omens, inferences and figures. There are no 
poems that can be compared with the sacred Scrip- 
tures. The Psalms, even now after having been re- 
duced to prose for. three thousand years, presents the 
best and most sublime collection of lynical poems. 
Then truly is the spirit of poetry a universal spirit, 
confined to no age, and limited to no country. The re- 
velations that have crowned the tops of Horeb and 
Sinai have descended through all succeeding ages to us. 
It can not be questioned, however, that knowledge and 
refinement have a tendency to "clip the wings of poet- 
ry," as they limit the imagination. Only the new and 
novel charm the fancy, enabling it to reach the cul- 
mination of its greatness. 

As we look through the present into the dim vista 
of the vague beyond, build lofty castles and people 
them with fairy forms, or connect them with dark 
myths of our own fancy, so, while unable to compre- 
hend the universe, we fill it with demons or gods, dear 
enchantments or pleasant retreats, as our muse se 
to picture. Indeed the imagination is the p jet's great 
talisman, and why repress our feelings of sadness as 
we see the hand of science at work, hewing down the 
barriers, and tearing us from our loved images by 
rashly changing them into prose realities, thus robbing 



44 STEPHENS MEDAL 

poetry of her sweetest essence. There can never be 
another ladder where angles may ascend and descend 
from heaven as in " Jacob's dream " of old. Alas ! sci- 
ence has done the cruel work here also. Astronomical 
research has measured the wide expanse between our 
world and Heaven rudely severing the link that con- 
nected us with the "pearly gates" of that "Celestial 
city." Yet in spite of this, poetry has many dear 
charms left. Life without this holy enthusiasm would 
be the sun without its brilliant ray, the diamond 
without its lustre. Poetry is the language of nature, 
and it it is not a reality,, life itself is a mere phantom, 
since all forms of poetry are imitations of nature. In 
the expressive language of that classic writer Emer- 
son, "nature itself is one grand trope, and all particu- 
lar natures particular tropes." The various changes 
and productions of nature are merely the nouns of the 
poet's language. All the lower and higher emotions 
of the mind — fear, hope, joy, love and hatred are but 
a portion of his vocabulary. 

"The world is full of poetry, the air 
Is living with its spirit ; and the waves 
Dance to the music of its melodies 
And sparkle in its brightness." 

The beautiful landscape, the crystal fountain, the 
grand painting, the lovely face, are all poems without 



PRIZE ORATIONS. 45 

■words, and though the thoughts are unexpressed, they 
are read none the less readily by the inspired heart. 
Man is a poetical being ; perhaps he may not acknowl- 
edge these principles or make them astudy, yet he acts 
them through life. " Poetry is the royal language of 
high born genius." It seizes the common-place topics 
and clotnes them in such a manner that they surprise 
and please us. How true the remark that "truth is 
stranger than fiction." For instance, the world has 
long thought that Truth and poetry were deadly ene- 
mies. Strange idea ! At no time is poetry so well 
fulfilling her ministry as when in harmony with truth. 
There are no two 'friends in the universe bound to- 
gether by stronger or more endearing ties, of affection. 
In the earliest creation God united them, and ever 
since they have blessed Heaven and earth with their 
bright presence. Indeed the relationship between truth 
and poetry is so near that they have been called twin 
sisters, and in their progress through life they walk 
hand in hand along the same pathway. But very 
often men hear the silver voice of poetry, while 
their dull earthly eyes fail to see the silent companion 
•so meekly at her side. Sometimes the silken cord that 
connects them is concealed by the rich drapery ; still 
they walk together all the same. These dear sisters, 
-though many times in plain attire and not recognized 



46 STEPHENS MEDAL 

by the world at large, teach man}" beautiful lessons to 
the musing heart. "When we read a grand poem each 
verse so fraught with beauty and truth, 'tis the poetry 
alone that appears on the printed page, while the truth 
is engraven on the soul. Yes, the poet is the greatest 
herald of truth, and how unlimited should be our 
gratitude to this welcome messenger," who by his soft 
whispers to us in solitude, starts a deep fountain of 
thought and feeling in the mind. The ministry of po- 
etry has won for her another sweet associate, less fair, 
perhaps, than her sister truth, yet the connection may 
be more readily noticed. Poetry and liberty are firmly 
bound together. "When freedom unfurls her banner of 
peace and prosperity and a nation is buoyed by bright- 
est hopes for the present and future, then poetry 
catches the breath of inspiration and readies its high- 
est degree of perfection. As the literary productions 
of an age always partake of the spirit of that age, so 
the most brilliant political stars of a nation are found 
in the genial skies of liberty. ' Tis under the benign 
influence of liberty that poetry develops into a splen- 
did system calculated to promote the best interests and 
extol the greatest acts of man. Poetry, the hand-maid 
of religion is often a balm to the weary and a conso- 
lation to the troubled. All Christian societies sing 
poems set to music, considering it a mete worship for 



PRIZE ORATION?. 47 

Him who loves the songs which angels sing. The 
most depraved man has been reformed by hearing fa- 
miliar lines of poetry. Perhaps it was a chant sung 
by his mother as she pressed him to her heart, or 
perhaps a peice learned in the dear old Sunday school 
of years ago. Even the soldier in his rough campaign 
is more strengthened and encouraged by his national 
verses than by any other influence. 

When he hears the fife and drum playing an ac- 
companiment to loved words, how his heart beats the 
time with enthusiastic emotion as he nerves himself 
for the severest conflict. Hence in nature and in art, 
in truth and in liberty, in religion and in revolution, 
the fair goddess poetry faithfully performs her duty, 
making her charming presence felt and acknowledged. 

Poetry does not confine her ministry to poems con- 
tained in books ; we have unwritten as well as writ- 
ten poetry. Wherever there is a sense of beauty, or 
power or harmony, there is poetry. Full many a 
heart overflowing with sublime thoughts and holy im- 
aginings needs but the " pen of fire " to hold enraptured 
thousands in its spell. The "thoughts that ■breathe" 
but not the " words that burn " are there. Xature's 
own inspirations fill the heart with emotion too deep 
for utterance, and the poetry of the heart lies forever 
concealed in its own mysterious shrine. Unwritten 



48 STEPHENS MEDAL 

poetry! It is stamped on the bright blue sky — it 
twinkles in the star — it rides on the ocean's swelling 
surge, and glitters in the dew drop that gems the lily- 
bell. It glows in the gorgeous colors of the west at 
close of day, and gilds the rosy light of morn. It rests 
on the blackened crest of the thunder cloud and paints 
the bright sunbeam. It is on the mountain's height 
and cataract's roar, on the towering oak and in the 
tiny flower. 

Thus we find her magic ministry wherever God's 
precious gifts find a resting place. 



"LET THERE BE LIGHT. 1 



BY F. W. KUMPH. 



THE earth lay calm and peaceful as framed by the 
Creator's hand. That awful calm and silence, 
which death alone can give lent terror to the plas- 
tic world. The Creator said, "Let there be Light," and 
lo ! the sombre clouds which had enshrouded the earth 
like a hideous funeral pall, vanished with the'gloom, 
while the. stygian darkness crept back into the depths 
of infinity. There in the east blushing hues surged 
up and intermingled ! The golden disk sprang up 
through shrinking night, and his glorious rays danced 
upon the tremulous ocean. Yes ! darkness was hurled 
from his throne and " holy light, offspring of Heaven 
first-born ruled eternal space forever more." That 
youngest day sped by but night ne'er ruled again for 
there on high : "Glowed God's bright firmament with 
livid sapphires ; Hesperus that led thestary host rode 
brightest, till the moon rising in cloudy majesty, at 



50 STEPHENS MEDAL 

length, apparent queen, unveiled her peerless light and 
o'er the dark her silvery mantle threw." 

Thus there was light ! Light in the physical uni- 
verse ! Xot so with the light of truth, or the mental ! 
In pursuit of that light the mind of man has followed 
two main channels. That of religion, and that of sci- 
ence. The man of sci ■ "from 
nature up to nature's God ;" to trace the foot-prints of 
his Creator, and shed the light of truth about him 
through the stud}" of his vvorl 

Alan takes the little flower of the fields learns the 
it of its growth., and the secretion of delicate per- 
fume, lie looks upon the mighty oak whose time- 
worn trunk has braved the winters of half a thousand 
years, and in its concentric history like 

a life. 

He scales the loft)- Cotopaxi, and while gazing down 
the dim, dumb crater dreams of tl hing hissing 

billows of fire down in the hot heart of that mountain. 
He dives beneath the foam-crested waves of Nep- 
tune's wide domain, glides among the shattered hulks, 
the chests of treasures and those who sank, 

"With bubling groan 
Without a grave, unknelled, uncoifined and unknown." 

He looks upon the monsters of the deep which wind 
their slimy, loathsome limbs about the loved and cher- 



PRIZE ORATIONS. 51 

islied forms of friends. He roams amid the crystaled 
caverns of the earth, and reads page after page of its 
volume of rocks. He looks upon the insect which flits 
for a moment and dies, upon the monsters whose life 
is told by centuries. Tie snatches the lightning from 
Jove's right hand, and " soon the electric spark, freight- 
ed with thought and love, flashes under the waters of 
every sea. He takes a tear, from the cheek of unpaid: 
labor, converts it into steam, and thus creates a giant 
who turns with tireless arm the countless wheels of 
toil." Yet, unsatisfied he turns his eyes up to the 
belfries of the skies, and looks down the rows of 
worlds, as you look down your lamp lighted streets at 
night. He learns that already the moon is but a char- 
red cinder of the earth ; the earth but a dying en 
of the sun ; the sun but a blazing fragment of the 
stars, and the stars themselves but dying suns, and ail 
their galaxies doomed to pale and wane in universal 
night and death. And yet with all this, the man of 
science has best stood upon the portico leading to the 
temple of God. 

When, on the other hand, we look back upon the 
scenes where the pale moonbeams of oblivion played 
about the noble deeds of men. How grand and glo- 
rious was the advance of Christianity. How few her 
followers when her conquest begun in the East, yet 



52 STEPHENS MEDAL 

how glorious her victorious march ; against the super- 
stition of the multitude ; against the influence and 
crafts of their priesthood ; against the ridicule of wits, 
the reasoning of sages, the policy of cabinets, and the 
prowess of armies she has extended her conquest from 
the sacred shrines of Galilee to the light tossing waves 
of the Pacific The altars of impiety crumbled before 
her march, the faint glimmer of the schools disappear- 
ed in her superior light! Puwer felt her arm wither 
at her glance, and in a short time she who had gone 
forlorn and insulted from the blood stained hill of 
Calvary to the tomb of Joseph, ascended Rome's im- 
perial throne, and waved her banner over the palaces 
of the Caesars. 

To-day e'en as she did when Bachel wept for her 
children she raises up the bowed head of the mourner, 
divests the heart of its cares, and blunts the sting of 
death ! And when at last the scenes of life have pass- 
ed by like some strange and curious panorama, with a 
smile like unto that Mary gave unto risen Jesus does 
she point out to the dying one the friends, on that 
beautiful shore, who are watching and waiting for 
him. 

Oft have I looked up at that star in the north and 
contemplated its value to roving man. How many a 
weary mariner tossed upon the bosom of the angry 



PRIZE ORATIONS. 53 

deep. How 'many a foot-sore wanderer seeking friends 
whom he knew not where to find, has turned his eyes 
up to that bright beacon of the heavens and ' been 
guided by its cheering rays to some blessed haven of 
rest. From earliest times that star and its north was 
known. When however years had rolled into centu- 
ries, man at length took the sand of the sea shore,, 
constructed a telescope and turned its wonder speaking 
mouth up to that mute field of humanity, and lo ! he 
finds that it is not a single but a double star the one- 
revolving in endless cycles about the others. And so. 
back in those dark ages, the star of Christianity alone- 
was seen and man by its cheering rays was led to- 
" That hoi.ne where the wicked cease from troubling*. 
and the weary are at rest," 

When however, superstition had vanished, with the 
gloom, impartial eyes were turned up to the star of 
Bethlehem, it to was found to be a double llluminary, 
the one the sun of Christianity, the other that of sci- 
ence, the resplendent glory of the one lending brilliancy 
to the dazzling splendor of the other, —both twinkling 
for eternity in the lovely vault of truth where the 
angels robed in their immaculate white, float and fly, 
in the realms of endless day, singing heavenly hallelu- 
jahs in praise of that Omnipotent God, who in the 
beginning said, u Let there be Light? 



AX THE SHEKIMAH." 



BY W. S. COWHEKD. 



WE lead, in that strangest and holiest of records, 
how in Jerusalem, city of sorrows, a temple was 
built by cunning hands ; and all the world of its 
abundance sent forth ample stores to wise king Solo- 
mon. Ophir gave up her gold, Lebanon her cedars. 
Architect and mason, joined with equal skill in rearing 
a dwelling place for God. And within the temple, 
guarded by cherubim and seraphim upon the throne of 
thrones, shone the shekimah, glory light of heaven. 
But wars and ruin came. The decendants of Israel 
fled to the uttermost parts of the world, and with them 
went persecution and pestilence and death. 

By rude assault the temple fell and the despised 
children of the desert reared an edifice with the stones 
brought by the cunning artisans of Hiram. And 
morn and noon and night, the Mussulman kneels to 
his devotions upon Moriah's rock, once the resting 
place of god. 



PRIZE ORATIONS. 55 

But unhurt by time and war and ruin, the Sheki- 
mah still exists. Still guarded by cherubims and watch- 
ed by seraphim it glows upon the countenance of 
every heaven-born son of earth. However degraded 
and depraved, however clothed in infamy and shame, 
and sunk in vice's damning dregs, that heavenly spark 
will flash a moment into being, and proclaim the brute 
a hero, and the man a G 

Man after all, is but a temple built by more than 
skillful hands, whose walls have never In ard the sound 
of hammer and of chisel. For unseen machinery 
raises from the earth each little molecule to fit it in 
its destined niche. So day by day the temple grows, 
and when at last it is complete the immortal soul 
comes down to take up its abode. 

The record that tliis tenant keeps the " whirling 
mass of cares, anxieties, affections, hopes and griefs," 
we call the creatures life, and in the story of a single 
life, we read the history of the world. 

Man strives at first with feebler animals, scarce 
knows himself to be of higher mould, until upon the 
tossing sea of life a noble ieebnrg, giant of the race, of 
thought, rears its head to point him heavenward and 
mind and feeling wake to sudden action. The crea- 
ture thinks. The future glorious possibilities rise like 
a mist before him and kindle in his heart a flame the 



56 STEPHENS MEDAL 

ages shall not quench. He knows and feels himself to 
be a spark of immortality, a torch to light a wilderness 
of doubt, a fire to fit the soul for heaven. 

When holy passion stops, ambition's goal takes up 
the strife for place and power, and wars are waged for 
gilded baubles and a nations blood flows with its riv- 
ulets. Honors empty, little lure men on to death and 
deeds the which a tiger might have done as well are 
hymned in verse and sung by bright young lips, till 
other hearts catch un the spark of passion and feel the 
war-lust on them ; and are lighted on to still more 
ruthless deeds. 

I sometimes think each individual nature is like a 
piece of music delicately writ indeed, and yet all hang- 
ing on a single note, and so through life we dully plod 
along until the master hand that sweeps the keys of 
of fate, but strike the chord to which our soul is 
strung and all the passion, all the life within lis 
wakes to sudden being. Some find the key note of 
their natures where the rude world strives for place or 
rank or power, and call it there ambition. Some seek 
it in the kindling glance that glows from dark black 
eyes, and in the blush that mantles beauty's cheek and 
there they call it love. Some only know it in the dis- 
mal cell, where the love anchoret pours forth his 
prayers, and dooms himself to pennance for his sins. 



PRIZE ORATIONS. 57 

But whenever and wherever found, it wakens in the 
man powers not known before. 

Touch but that chord and you may lead him on to 
deeds of daring, that shall form a theme for poetry 
and song. Touch but that chord and you better still 
will see acts of noble sacrifice of self, which the 
world never knows <:>r ere appl m Is, but over which 
heaven's angles weep, as they record the hero's name 
upon the book of life. He, who learns to play on 
such a harp divine, makes music sweeter than that 
with which Amphion moved the rocks to take their 
places in the wall of Thebes. 

Such are the men who move the world. They learn 
the music"" that with mighty wing-beat sweeps the 
chambers of the soul." They gather up the chords 
that lead from heart to heart, teach them to thrill 
with pleasure or vibrate with pain, and when. they call 
for good or bad, humanity stands ready to respond. 

Caesar points to the walls of Rome, and the battle 
scarred heroes of Gaul forgetting honor home and coun- 
try turns to salute a king. Xapoleon lands at Cannes, 
and ere the tri-color greets the sunlight an army awaits 
his command. Unmindful of the seas ot blood they 
have already shed for him, unmindful that their com- 
rades bones bleach on every plain in Europe, giving to 
this man all the love they owe to La Belle France, 
they become his lambs to lead, his lions to incite. 



58 STEPHENS MEDAL 

Even at this day and age, we, who claim to have 
purified our nations of all their baser portions, and 
educated into nobler growth the divinity that dwells 
within us, still feel our pulses beat faster where the 
battle sung- is sung, and lung to hear again the tale of 
war and rapine ; and how the beast has conquered and 
and the man has died. But savage war with savage 
state must cease. When all his fierceness has been 
quenched in blood, man turns to works of peace, and 
reason bears her heavenly Home to guide his wonder- 
ing foot-steps, ^o hand in hand these two climb, ever 
higher, up the hill of knowledge, and the heights of 
thought. Till to presumptuous grown, man dares 
attack the very gates of heaven, and finds in all 
consuming death a mete reward. .The three dark sis- 
ters, whose seat is at the foot of the great tree of life, 
and who ever water its rootlets with their tears, have 
cut one of the strands their nimble fingers weave. 
One little leaflet bearing on its face the story of a life, 
has been borne away upon the sighing breeze. Will 
the other leaflets miss it? Will the sisters cease to 
weave, because one thread is broken? Thus dies the 
man, so perishes the nation. Where are the mighty 
kingdoms that once rnled the woild? Tell me Baby- 
lon, Queen City of the brazen gates, why dot s the com- 
merce of the Asias no longer throng your marts? 



PPvIZE ORATKXNS. 59 

Par famed Illium, why grows the grass above the 
rains of your sixth laid city ? Beautiful Palmyra why 
do your massive col urns and fluted pillars keep lonely 
watch over the vacant desert ? Jerusalem much loved 
by heaven, why has a foreign prince usurped the throne 
of David, and the temple of Solomon become a mos- 
que of Mohammed? 

From one and all the same sad tale, war to their 
neighbors, doubts of their gods has brought the aven- 
ging hand. Go seek their vacant sites, where once the 
city's spires ruse fair to meet the gaze, now lies a mass 
of mouldering ruins, and an idle savage turns in his 
hand a bit of broken pottery ; or grows a little learned 
reads from carved stones, and moulded brick won- 
drous tales of those who once lived and loved where 
now he reigns supreme. 

Trul}, " the palaces of kings have become a den of 
wild beasts, flocks fold on the arena of the temple, and 
unclean reptiles inhabit the sanctuary of the gods. 
Thus perish the works of man ; thus do empires and 
nations pass away." How soon such fate may be 
our own we know not. The broad diversity of our 
country and national character afford aliKe the el- 
ements of ruin and of life. The conflict of section- 
al interests leads to war. The common love we 
bear our country keeps us at peace. The example 



60 STEPHENS MEDAL 

of our fathers should hold us fast to the faith in 
our God. The spirit of our age doubts his existence' 
Already the conflict has begun. While in the east 
the pastor tells to his flock the story of the cross, thou- 
sands throng the halls to hear infidelity proclaimed in 
undying eloquence. In the. West paganisui sits idly 
nodding in the sun, beneath the very eaves of ancient 
monastaries. From the Atlantic, comes German athe- 
ism and old world doubt ; from the Pacific, Confu- 
cius invades the realm of Christ. God grant the 
end be distant far, and nought but the arch-angles 
trump, that wakes to life the nations of the past,, 
shall peal the death-knell of our race. 



THE RUINS OF TIME. 



BY R. M. COOK. 



NOTHING but dreary ruins commemorate the glo- 
rious triumphs of the past, Time remorseless as 
death rolls onward, ever onward, crushing and oblit- 
erating the grandest monuments ot human ambition. 
We behold only the silent graves of human efforts, 
gleaming in mournful grandeur along the " Appian 
Way." Of his progress from Thebes to Troy, from 
Troy to Athens, from Athens to Rome, — eternal only 
in song and story. 

The historian muses sadly amid the mighty ruins 
of the past, he lingers with awe among the whitened 
sepulchers of human hopes; views with sorrow the 
shapeless masses of broken columns aud fallen porti- 
coes beneath which lie crushed and mouldering the 
statues of gods and heroes modeled by inspiration and 
wrought by genius. The gloomy sphinx, with giant 
brow, all furrowed by the shifting sands of Egypt, 



62 STEPHENS MEDAL 

pers his mystic prayer to the god of day, but his 
wierd voice sounding through all the ages reveals no 
secret of the dead past. The zealous antiquarian may 
linger long and earnestly within" the sombre shadows 
of mysterious Mernnon, but the oracle ot the plain is 
dumb to all his hopes, silent as the lofty pyramids ; as 
the mighty temples of Thebes, or the buried cities of 
Pompeii and Herculanium, that need not the genius 
of superstition to vocalize their ruins. They speak 
not in whispers, but in trumpet tongues and the 
language of one is the voice of all. Once the proud 
monuments of mans creative genius, they now stand 
as wonderful witnesses of the devouring, blighting 
touch of time. A few more years and the shifting 
sands of the desert will have proved their winding 
sheet, hiding forever the mouldering monuments of 
the dead past. I ntinel of Pompeii, they 

are eloquent in their silence, fantastic in their gloom. 
The pages of history gleam with the glorious ex- 
ploits of heroes and statesmen and poets. The great 
monuments of antiquity were built to commemorate 
their virtues. Man, in the very infancy of the race 
seems to have appreciated the ravages of Time, and 
with the courage and energy of despair he reared the 
grandest monuments of antiquity. The unequal strug- 
gle commenced upon the plains of Babylon, while the 



PRIZE ORATIONS. 63 

tragedy of the deluge was still fresh in the minds of 
all. The growing power and expanding genius of 
man but intensified the struggle which wider and 
fiercer grew as material for conflict increased upon the 
earth. Time, eternal in might, spurned the feeble 
efforts of men and laughed to scorn the very gods they 
worshiped. Hurling their temples in the dust, he bur- 
ied idols and idolaters in one common gnu e, as did the 
vengeful son of Manoah in the house of Dagon. Alas ! 
forth© heroes of the dim past! helpless victims of a 
hopeless struggle ! Even the states founded by their 
wisdom and nurtured by their prudence are gone. 
The language that once stired the souls of millions to 
deeds of virtue and noble daring, live but in the text 
books ; is spoken only at the altar. The poets who 
gave lite and soul and power to the classic tongues 
have not so much as a tomb to do them honor. The 
heroes they loved, t lie gods they worshiped may have 
filled the world with their presence but time denies 
them a monument in fee-simple for all their pains. 
How earnestly they coveted such distinction ! How 
vainly they strove to perpetuate their names through 
all ages! Some spent the spoils of triumph rearing 
glorious mausoleums only to leave the world in doubt 
whether their bones were within the crumbling walls 
or in the potters field without. The followers of the 



64 STEPHENS MEDAL 

cross despised the grandeur of pagan Rome and with 
pride born of humility despoiled the grandest temples 
to build monastaries, convents and chapels. The tombs 
of Emperor's became depositories for relics or prisons 
for heretics. Instead of Roman eagles, emblems of 
courage and victory, marshalling heroic legions to fields 
of glory, returning triumphant with the spoils of con- 
quered nations, the cross is borne by mitered priests 
and hooded monks returning with Peters pence and 
the victims of unbelief. Owls built their nests and 
reared their young in the temples of Mars and Jupiter. 
Time leagued with priest-craft reared the temples of 
the Xazarene upon the ruins of pagan Rome, sparing 
none of her proud monuments, not even the ashes of 
her illustrious dead. If Rome is yet great and glori- 
ous in her ruins, we have not to thank her popes and 
bishops; we only thank them for what they spared. 
The same may be said of Jerusalem, the city of the 
living God, the home of David and Solomon, the site 
of the famous temple, which contained within its 
walls all that was rich and beautiful and grand ; all 
that could excite awe, admiration and delight. The 
whole world contributed to its construction, the na- 
tions of the earth to its endowment. Its golden vest- 
ments and silver ornaments ; its altars of ivory and 
beaten gold, in its brazen sea surrounded by glittering 



PRIZE ORATIONS. 65 

statuary, extorted the wonder and admiration >of the 
human race. What of this vast temple to-day V Alas ! 
it vanished before the foot-steps of time leaving us to 
muse in silence over its departed grandeur, as though 
it were a dream, or the recollection of an Oriental 
fable, heard in childhood and almost forgotten. The 
wandering Arab pitches his tent in the court yard of 
the great Being, and the shepherd folds his flock at 
night in the holies of holies. 

The fruitful vine, the luxurious date and fig tree, 
the vigorous olive and citron, — themes of song and 
history, —where are those green trees and fruitful 
fields ? The pride and boast of this God favored land. 
This land of promise flowing with milk and honey? 
Look but upon the parched and dreary landscape, dry, 
crisp and baren, hoary from centuries of drought 
behold the ruin of time, and ask not for the glory of 
Israel has departed. 

Thus time rolls onward through the cycles of the 
ages, a veritable Juggernaut crushing life and hopes 
and memory beneath his giant wheels, yet man, pre- 
sumptuous man, exulting in the triumphs of his geni- 
us, has dared to put forth his hand as if to stay the pro- 
gress of this invincible chariot. Like the servant of the 
Hebrew king, the impetuous ITzzah, who laid sacrileg- 
ious bands upon the Ark of the Covenant, man has suf- 



66 STEPHENS MEDAL 

fered for such ti mc-rity ; has paid the penalty of crimes 
unseen of justice and unknown to law. Such has been 
the power of time. Such the penalty of man's resist- 
ance through all the ages. The good and the bad, the 
virtuous and the vicious, the Jew and the Gentile, the 
Christian and the Pagan stand alike in the presence of 
all conquering time, all have striven ; all have perish- 
ed in the strife ; yet time rolls around to other fields 
and grander victories among the children of men. The 
ruins that survive his progress are all seamed and 
defaced, mangled and distorted ; but monuments of 
blighted hopes teaching only the lesson of despair. 
Where is the grand m lusoleum, of Alausolus, king of 
Caria, with its massive columns and beatiful statu- 
ary? Xot a vestig ; remains to rew ird the zealous la- 
bors of the antiquarian. Artemisia builded wisely 
and well, but time laughed to scorn her lab >rs of love 
and duty. Where is tlie mausoleum of Alexander? 
Once the glory and pride of B.ibylon, with its bronze 
galleries, and tier after tier of glittering statuary? 
Where is the monument of Augustus, crowned with a 
colossal statue of the great emperor? The mausole- 
um of Hadrian, the statues of which were hurled upon 
the besieging Goths while surging like the mad waves 
of an ocean about its marble walls. 

The last alone survives, a papish bastile with a his- 



PKIZE ORATIONS. 67 

tory redder than blood. The hand of destruction has 
been busy, but we are not left in doubt as to the mag- 
nificence of pagan civilization. The wasting powers 
of time have razed mausoleums of solid granite, crush- 
ing columns of Parian marble and hurled from lofty 
pedestals the statues of the gods and heroes, but 
through all this carnival of ruin, some fragments have 
yet escaped even down to our own age, an age which 
cherishes with laudable pride, and zealous care all that 
time has left to commemorate the bright and glorious 
past. But we look in vain for the academy and the 
Lyceum, for the famous portico from which resounded 
the voice of Plato, Zeno and their illustrious compet- 
itors. Those grand receptacles of learning, liberty, and 
laws are prostrate in the dust. The glory of Athens 
lives only in the silent tones of history. The temple 
of Diana of Ephesus, and the oracles of Delphi have 
likewise perished went down before the flaming sword 
of the Arabian fanatic, who came with command- 
ments in one hand and the sword in the other. The 
palace of Nero and the shrine of Apollo are- mingled 
with the ruins of the forum, the tribunal and the 
rostrum. The grand Coliseum, where the despairing 
gladiators poured out their life blood to amuse the 
Roman populace, remains a dreary mass of stone and 
mortar, ivy-grown and almost hidden from the light 
of day. 



68 STEPHENS MEDAL 

The Goths and Vandals, the warlike hordes of the 
Arabian prophet, the torrent of civil commotion, the 
the fanatical votaries of the cross, the fierce struggle 
for liberty of conscience, tne despotism of popes, em- 
perors and kings all contributed to the overthrow of 
what centuries of prosperity, culture and power had 
erected along the fruitful shores of the Mediterranean, 
the "Garden of the gods" reaching from Byzantium 
to the gates of Hercules. Thus time seemes to have 
suborned the very genius and power of man against 
•all that was sublime and noble among the works of 
men. 

Happily for those, who honor their race and cherish 
that which is good and great and beautiful in human 
nature, time has not yet been able to wholy obliterate 
•the memory of human greatness. The history of man's 
achievements will remain forever like precious heir- 
looms among the children of men. The historians and 
poets perhaps obscure and despised in their day have 
snatched the world's great heroes from oblivion. 
Their written pages multiplied by thousands w r ere 
soon beyond the rapacious zeal of bigots. The edicts 
of spiritual tyrants could not reach all the hidden 
tomes of learning and to preserve one copy was suffi- 
cient to save the genius of its author, and the ex- 
ploits of his. age from oblivion. The very machinery 



PRIZE ORATIONS. 69 

which priest-craft put in motion to obliterate pagan 
civilization and culture recoiled in the salvation of 
many precious volumes. The lazy monks, isolated in 
their dreary cloisters, spent the best years of their 
lives in copying the works of pagan authors and when 
popes and bishops stretched forth their hands to 
distroy the literature of the past, their zealous ef- 
forts proved abortive, thanks to the servants of the 
church who builded wiser than they knew. The lessons 
of the past and the realization of the present, should 
humble the proudest heart. There is nothing immuta- 
ble in this vast world of ours; nothing in the life we 
cherish. If the journey of life ends with our three 
score years and ten, it is not much to live, still less to 

die. 

If it be true, that : 

" It is not all of life to live 
Xor all of death to die." 

Then, there must be rewards, perhaps punishments 
beyond the power and dominion of death. It is an at- 
tribute of nature to hope, though we may not be able 
to give a reason for the hopes we cherish. When 
weary of the retrospective ; sad from contemplating 
the ravages of time and the unstability of human 
efforts, wenaturaly look forward to eternity, wherein 
the living are supposed to be co-existing and co-exten- 



70 STEPHENS MEDAL 

sive with time itself. This is hope, the pillar of fire 
by night, that rests like an angel of peace and mercy 
over the sanctuary of many hearts. Happy are those 
who can felicitate themselves with such thoughts, for 
the ravages of time, even death itself has no terrors 
to the hopeful. This world ma) perish ; may be roll- 
ed together like a scroll ; may melt with fervent heat, 
it is all the same to those waiting, trusting, hopeful 
mortals, whose faith enables them to look beyond the 
confines of this perishable world to one imperishable, 
radiant with light and beauty. There are no limits to 
the hopes of immortality nor to the duration of felic- 
ity, it is a picture seen only through the eyes of faith ; 
a picture graven by the hand of God upon the minds 
-of men ; a picture without shadow and without gloom ; 
it picture as glorious as the substance it represents ; 
as bright as the light that beats upon the very throne 
of God. 



WILLIAM THE SILENT AND FREE 
WORSHIP. 



BY PAUL ALEXANDER. 



WHEN Charles V., abdicated his crown and left 
to his son the performance of the terrible 
policy, which he had begun ; he leaned upon the 
shoulder of the man, who was destined to deal that 
policy its most fatal blow. When Philip and his re- 
gents were sending persecution and deatli among their 
subjects and converting rich and prosperous cities into 
smoke and ashes, they were compelled to lean upon 
the shoulder of the man whose power they dared 
not resist; yet whose genius they recognized as their 
deadliest and most implacable foe. 

When all the Netherlands were writhing under the 
wnip and torture of a pitiless foreign tyrant, and the 
last hope of mercy from their king'had died in darkness 
and misery ; they leaned in utter helplessness upon the 
shoulder of William of Nassau, Prince of Orange. 

The great religious contest had been postponed, for 



»'2 MEDAL 

some dozen years,in Germany, by the Augsburg trea- 
ty, in France by the crafty policy of Catharine, in the 
surrounding countries the contending factions had 
been brought to a halt, and the great st niggle bcl ween 
faith and conscience on the one hand, and bigotry and 
outrageous greed upon the other was transferred to 
the Netherlands there to be fought out for the rest of 
the century, while all Christendom was anxiously 
waiting the result. From the east, and from the west 
the dark clouds of war foiled hack only to concen- 
trate themselves in more portentious darkness over 
the devoted soil of the Netherlands. The storm had 
been long in maturing but when it burst forth, it was 
like some huge Hood in its onward course yielding 
here, hesitating there, but as resistless in its progress 
and as irresistaMe in its results as the will of the 
eternal God from whom it sprang; audit would ho 
more philosophical to inquire how it had resisted so 
lou-' than to ask, why should such an outbreak occur. 
It was the outburst of a principle, which had been 
repressed, for ages by inonarchs and prelates, w hose 

every idea of justice was sullied by tie' greediness of 
their own boundless desires. The noblesso conspicu- 
ous, on its surface, at its outbreak, only drifted before 
a storm, which they neither created nor could control ; 

even the most powerful and sagacious were tossed to 



PRIZE ORATIONS. 73 

and fro, by the surge of great events, which as they 
rolled more and more tumultuously around them 
seemed to become both irresistible, and uncontrollable. 
It could not be find nations advancing so rapidly, in 

the higher arts should retain in their midst this 
eternal foe of ci v ili/at ion. That extraordinary culture 
had not dawned upon the world only to increase the 
power of absolutism and superstition ; the new world 
had not been discovered, the Old World re-con<|nered ; 
the printing press perfected, merely t hat the I nqnisit ion 

might reign undisturbed overall tin; earth, and charter- 
ed hypocrisy fatten upon fh of its fairest lands. 
Such was the stream against which the brave 
William set his noble breast, and such were the 
conditions of the times, when Ik; struck the first blow 
for religious liberty, and held up to the view of all 
mankind, the brighest jewel that sparkles in the crown 
of modern civilization. When, in tin; woods of 
Vineennes, the blundering French king committed to 
the ears of William the Silent, the plot of two kings 
against their subjects ; he stirred up in that breast, the 
spirit that was destined to be his bitterest enemy, and 
which wrapped itself in attentive silence ; and from 
that day begun the preparation which was to free an 
innocent people from the hated yoke of a cruel and 
relentless king. 



74 STEPHENS MEDAL 

It is difficult for men, placed in a country, and 
living in a cold calculating age like this, to form a 
just idea of the contrast between the nobility of 
such a man, and the mean ess and perfidy of the 
statesmen of his age. To do this we must lift the 
veil from those woeful ages, and look upon the events 
that fill the reddest pages in the history of religious 
persecution. When men, women, and children were 
driven in droves to the stake; when to effect the 
elevation of the nobility there were introduced into 
the country all the terrors of the dread Spanish 
Inquisition; when outlawed criminals, and merciless 
fanatics banded themselves under a common standard ; 
and under that semblance of religion, duly committed 
the foulest crimes that history has ever recorded. To 
see the greatness of his intellect we must consider the 
bigotry of Philip, the craftiness of Granville, the 
brutal cruelty of Alva, against all of whom, single 
handed and alone, he contended for the welfare of the 
people who had turned to him as their only saviour. 

To estimate his abilities as a general we must 
consider the readiness with which he made soldiers of 
merchants, regulars of tradesman, who had been 
strangers to the sword, and with them fought with 
success against the best trained troops, in Europe, led 
by the most brilliant of Spanish captains. He lived 



PRIZE ORATIONS. 75 

in an age when duplicity, and cunning were considered 
the chief ingredients of statesmanship- He dealt with 
a king, who while he caressed and fondled him to his 
face was continually attempting to stab him in the 
back. His path through life was beset at every step 
by the bullets and daggers of the hired assassins of 
Philip. Yet midst all the turmoil, and confusion of 
the age ; midst all the crime and calumny of his 
enemies, he reared himself like some great mountain 
peak, whose brow is unsullied by the murky mists 
that play around its base ; whose form looms up only 
the greater from being viewed through the darkness, 
and gloom of the age. 

But what was it for which he was contending with 
such devoted zeal? And what was to be the result of 
the work of a man, who lived and died ior the 
principles he upheld? 

The assassin's bullet, alas ! finally found the vitals 
of Orange, but the eternal law whose justice he was 
maintaining could never die. Deep down in the 
hearts of all people there was growing the conviction 
that every man should worship as he chose ; and 
welling up from countless fountain heads, it has 
spread itself over every land, and melted before it the 
last vestige of human opposition. 

Right in front of the batteries, of the Inquisition, 



76 STEPHENS MEDAL 

there was planted a tender twig of this divine spirit, 
whose vital spark was only increased by the tannings 
of adversity, and taking root in that sandy soil it has 
grown and spread its brances till their shadows fall in 
every land ; and to day mark the boundary line 
betweeen barbarism and civilization. 

In every town where beauty dwells. In every 
home where knees are bent. In every voice that sings 
God's praise, we hear it speak in tones of love, and 
see it reign in perfect peace. Out from its source, in- 
exhaustable and pure, that river of life is flowing to- 
day and wending its way through the garden of life, it 
reflects back the scenes on its shady banks, and height- 
ens their beauty in its sparkling waves. 



THE GREAT PROBLEM. 



BY A. M. ELSTON. 



NEWTOX solved the great problem of the universe, 
and gave to the world that mysterious principle, 
by which moons, planets and trembling stars hangout 
in space unsupported. The Astronomer has succeed- 
ed in unwinding the eternal dance of the skies, and 
we now watch with awe and admiration, the move- 
ment of the spheres. 

The untiring research of the scientist have unveil- 
ed the hidden mysteries of that all potent and wonder- 
ful agent, electricity, and to-day two sister continents 
step to the rocky beach aud join hands over the crys- 
tal depths of the blue Atlantic ; bridging the great 
gulf that once separated a mother from her child. 

It was in the long ago that the " Pinta," turned her 
head Westward, spreading her white wings to an 
untried breeze. To-day the Great Eastern proudly 
rides the towering billows, curling her black rings 



to STEPHENS MEDAL 

heavenward ; writing- the deathless name of Robert: 
Fulton. .Thus was solved the problem of* steam, but 
the great problem which should demand the attention 
of every individual, than which none other carries 
with it more of importace in its solution, is the simple 
query : "How can I make life a success?" It has 
been discussed by moralists of every age, all of whom 
claim to have arrived at a correct solution, they have 
enunciated its results so often, and with clearness, that 
we would think that there could be no failures, but 
the shores of fortune are lined with shipwrecked 
humanity, who have foundered upon the rocks of 
misapprehension. 

This problem to a large extent must be solved by 
each individual for himself, and in order for him to 
arrive at a correct solution he must be careful not to 
reason from false premises. 

Man, starting in life has been compared to a vessel 
of war leaving port under sealed orders. In his voyage 
only the ways of providence disclose Whim to what 
parts he must go, or on what seas he must sail. 

He knows not of the dangers that beset his course,, 
of the sunken reefs, iceburg or stormy cape which 
may be his ruin. He must steer his unknown course 
through perilous storms and treacherous calms, with- 
out a chart or compass for his guidance, arching his 



PRIZE ORATIONS. 79 

sails to this untried breeze like, Coleridge's mariner, 
''He is the first that ever burst into that lone]} 7 sea." 
When starting out upon this great voyage we are 
liable to delude ourselves with the mistaken idea of 
what life really is. When we gaze around at the 
pleasurable scenes of this world ; when we find our- 
selves surrounded by everything that would tend to 
add to our comfort, posessed of health and happy 
homes, we are lead to exclaim, — O how pleasant it is 
to live ! Hor\- our whole>beings thrill with delight as 
we contemplate the ra igui licence of our suiToundings. 
We acquiesce in the thought that every thing is 
complete, that the world was made for our special use 
and there remains nothing for us but to enjoy a life of 
ease and comfort, in short we regard life as, 

"A summers day mid sweets and blooms to 
Dream ourselves away." 

Be not deceived life is not a dream. It is a real 
conflict, and he, who would bear off the palm of vic- 
tory must enter the field equiped for a fierce affray, 
realizing that there is no such thing as retreat but 
like the three hundred at Thermopylae, he must con- 
quer or fall. The man who has refused to enter this 
conflict, but passed through life without bearing his 
proportion of its burdens, has not lived ; he has sim- 
ply spungedhis existence 



80 STEPHENS MEDAL 

So the individual who is about to start on this long 
journey, the first important requirement is that he se- 
lect for himself some particular avocation. How sad 
it is to see young men, with unusual talents spendin g 
the best years of their lives, without any definite ob- 
ject in view. Man must have an aim. The marks- 
man who does not aim at the object will never hit it. 
The rocket when projected horizontally is lost in its 
brilliant effect ; but when pointed upward, it speeds 
aloft, increasing in its glowing splendor at every in- 
stant, ascending higher and higher ; as if to pierce the 
Heavens in its flight and link itself with the remote 
and passionless stars, there rests for a moment and 
bursts with a halo of glory. What a wonderful illus- 
tration of human life. The effect which this article 
produces as a brilliant display, depends entirely upon 
its aim. So with us, if we ever expect to make a 
brilliant display in life, we must aim at the top : 

" He aims too low who aims beneath the stars." 

Another important requisite essential to success in 
life is self-reliance. It is said that the lobster when 
washed high and dry upon the rocks will lie there and 
die waiting for the sea to come and carry it back. 
So there are many human lobsters who will wait un- 
til they have grown hoary with age expecting some 



PRIZE ORATIONS. 81 

tidal wave to bear them upon its undulating bosom 
far out into the sea of successful life. 

"We might as well try to dip the ocean from its bed 
and hurl it into space, as to attempt to pass through 
life clinging like an ivy vine to others. 

The Creator has endowed us with all these facul- 
ties necessary to that degree of success, which he in- 
tended for us, and if we use them to the best of our 
ability we are bound to succeed. 

Some irresolute man will say that there is no field 
for the successful aspirant of to-day ; that the great 
battle of life is crowded with commissioned officers,. 
who are stopping the avenues of promotion. To-night 
the world will retire after a busy day of strife and toiL 
Even now one half of the globe lies wrapped in* 
peaceful slumber, who knows but that ere the golden* 
orb ushers in the dawn of another day, the bugle, of 
the Arch-angel will sound the resurection call, aum- 
moning millions of pagan souls into the presence of 
their God. Xo field ! In what grander and nobler 
work can man enlist, than in the salvation of human 
souls. 

To one half the world the story of Christ is un- 
known. Every con verted soul adds another star to* 
our immortal crown ; and when he, who has consecra- 
ted his energies to the accomplishing of this priestly 



82 STEPHENS MEDAL 

mission, has completed his earthly pilgrimage, he dies 
amidst the acclamations of ten thousand angels, dies 

1st the drums and trumpets of Satan's host, dies 
amidst peal upon peal, volley upon volley from the 
saluting clarions of Heaven's assembled hosts. 

We hear persons remark, Oh ! if I only hadtheabil- 

f this, or that individual, if I had his attainments, 
his learning I might make a success of life. They 
seem to forget that the very thing they desire might 
have been attained by them, with half the effort it 
cost him. They imagine that the} ought to secure 
without an effort, that which others attain only by the 
most persistent labor. Some even give up in despair, 
because they have not' the wealth to carry them 
through ; but will wealth secure success? Xo, "La- 
bor is the price of excellence." 

Go with me into the field of literature. Who 
they that have plucked bright honor from the pale 
faced moon? ' ; Were they the sons of noble scions?" 
N tl ey were the children of humble parentage, who 
were rocked in the cradle of poverty, the gentlemen 
of nature, who have trodden under foot the painted 
lizards of society. 

In whatever calling we may embark we must 
bear in mind, that to succeed means to labor. No man 
has eve eded in any other way. Do we com- 



PRIZE ORATIONS. 83 

plain that we have not the ability to succeed? The 
giant oak, that forest king, once nestled in a single 
acorn. A camel driver founded a new religion and 
revolutionized the whole world. Copernicus, the ba- 
kers son, caught in his inspiration the flight of plan- 
ets round the sun. Caxton an obscure merchant by 
the introduction of the printing press into England 
revolutionized the whole intellectual aspect of society. 
History is full of such examples, showing that great 
achievements may be made by those who are appa- 
rently dwarfs. 

Do we wait for opportunities, they everywhere 
present themselves. Grand and wonderful are the 
possibilities of this Nineteenth century ; mighty and 
marvelous are the consequences to be achieved. Piti- 
able is he, who accomplishes nothing, living in 
age and in this grand common-wealth. No encomi- 
ums need be passed upon this nation. Here she 
stands, extending to generations yet unborn, the invi- 
tation to partake of inexhatistable resources, reaching 
from the surges of the Atlantic to the waves of the 
Pacific ; from the lakes of the North, to the Southern 
gulf. 

Now is our opportunity. Here is the horse saddled 
and bridled, mount him as he passes and yours is a 
triumphant ride to success, let him pass and the clat- 



84 STEPHENS MEDAL 

tering of his hoofs, as he gallops along down the cor- 
ridors of time, will forever sound the death-knell of 
your departed hopes. 

What a brilliant prospect awaits us in the future. 
Look at the youth of this age ! Did you never dream 
of the mighty struggles that are in store for them, 
— the hard battles that are to be won, --the grand 
conquests in the field of statesmanship, the unfading 
wreaths in the realm of literature, and the eternal 
coronets that He, who sees the sparrow fall, clasps 
about their brows? Why, the world is at the young 
man's feet and untold wonders lie slumbering in 
his mighty arm. A man sets his mark at whatever 
height he desires, lofty or groveling as he may see fit, 
and the man who can consecrate himself to a life 
of pure, noble, lofty and honorable purposing and 
who supports his ambition with perseverence and 
courage ; will succeed as sure as the sun ascends 
the eastern sky. 

It was the same Hannibal, who swore his eternal 
hatred to Rome, who commanded the army that cross- 
ed the Alps and shook the power of the capital of 
the Ca?sars. 

It was Xapoleon, the examplar of French patriot- 
ism, who ascended the throne of a powerful monarchy, 
not by any accident of birth but by his manhood and 



PRIZE ORATIONS. 85 

dauntless ambition becoming " Emperor with his foot 
on the throat of prostrate Europe." 

It was Alexander, the world conquerer, who only 
stopped in his dazzling flight, when the blue waters of 
the Indian ocean checked his advancing feet. Success 
awaits us, and is surely ours, if we but put forth the 
proper effort. Let us, then be alive, patient, energetic, 
watchful and hopeful. Then if we fail, it will be with 
the consciousness of having done our best, which is 
after all the truest success to which man can aspire. 



WOMAN 



BY H. B. HILGEMAN. 



• r ]MIE poets tell us that one morning in the dim star- 
1 light of the distant past, the pleasant groves of 
Mount Olympus witnessed a dispute between Minerva, 
wisdom's goddess, and Neptune builder of the walls of 
Troy. Each wished to give the name to the Acropolis. 
High were the words and angry were the looks of hoth 
until at length the deities assembled, decreed the pre- 
ference to whichsoever of the two should give the 
mt of most value to the inhabitants of earth. At 
this, the god of all the seas smote the firm earth with 

charmed trident and forth there sprang the horse, 
Emblem of war and strength and slaughter. Jove's 

ghter smiled, and opening her lips pronounced the 
magic words, at whose sweet sound the olive, token of 
peace, prosperity, success and happiness bloomed in- 
to blushing life. With one accord the deities pro- 
nounced the victory hers. She named the place 



PRIZE ORATIONS. 87 

AthenaB, and becoming t lie tutelary goddess of the 
city there sprung up, fostered its youth and guided its 
manhood, till Athens rose to be the wonder of the 
ancient world. The lesson taught us in this chaiming 
legend should be engraven upon the heart of every 
man. 

How beautifully it sets forth the influences for 
good which woman's presence and actions have usually 
exerted. These influences be it now our task to trace. 
Let us place ourselves under the guidance of the geni- 
us of truth, and wander with him down the path of 
history listening to the narrative he tells of woman's 
works. Closing our eyes upon the present, as the; 
shut out from the future, let us transport ourselves in 
thought, hack to the time when our first parents occu- 
pied that wondrous spot where all the charm 
mture vied with each other to delight the sense and 
please the eye ; and where within the sweet retire- 
ment of ambrosia] bowers, they held direct communion 
with their God. Their exit from this garden of de- 
light, marked the first enterance of suffering in the 
world, and who is there will say that woman has re- 
fused to bear her part V 

The spheres of action of the two sexes are widely 
different in appearance, yet, there exists between them 
a mutual dependence. It is woman's work to prepare 



88 STEPHENS MEDAL 

the young for the active contests of life, and after 
these have begun to cheer and sustain the faltering 
battlers in the strife. Man, treading in the path thus 
shadowed out for him, achieves whatever of success 
may crown his efforts. This was the truth that flash- 
ed upon the poets mind and prompted him to tell the 
beautiful story, how Pallas in the guise of an aged 
man led the weak footsteps of the young Telemachus 
in those paths of truth and virtue where, were sown 
the seeds of wisdom that in after years developed into 
an almost perfect character. The individual in this 
•case may be taken as typical of the whole. Each 
mother is a Pallas, each son a Telemachus. 

In proportion as worn m is educated, elevated 
xefined and free, does she exert an elevating, refining 
and enlarging influence upon those around her. The 
condition of woman is the true criterion of the civil- 
ization of any age or any country. It is this, which 
•distinguishes savage from civilized nations. It is this, 
which distinguishes the east from the west. It is this, 
which contrasts Antiquity and the Middle Ages ; the 
Middle Ages and Modern times. The emancipation 
of woman from the bondage imposed by paganism 
lends to Christianity the brightest jewel in its glori- 
ous crown. And this it is, which will serve to make 
the power of the Christian religion "as durable as 
time, and as abundant as the waves of the sea." 



PRIZE ORATIONS. 89 

Turn we now to the various ileitis, of thought and 
action, to which the world's attention has been paid and 
let us examine the names that have left a lasting im- 
pression on their records. Whether we look upon 
fields when blossomed poetry and the line arts in all 
their gorgeous beauty and perfection ; whether we 
.gaze upon the plains where contests decisive of the 
weal or woe of nations have taken place ; or whether 
we enter at the gates that lead 10 the .secret meeting 
•place of cabals and councils ; wherever we earn, the 
history of some powerful woman attracts no small 
share of attentive consideration. Hypatia, Sappho, 
Elizebeth, Catharine II., D'Stael and Hemans, form a 
constellation whose brilliance is not dimmed by con- 
trast with any in the firmament of immortality. If 
thus the past produced names such as these, what 
may we not expect of the present and the future to 
bring forth? Liberal education, a just appreciation 
of her natural talents, an eqnal station in society and 
•a welcome to all the avenues of wealth and industry ; 
all these the present offers and she gladly accepts. 
The past desired them, and the influence which this 
simple, tardy justice to the so-called "weaker sex" 
has already exercised, is plainly to be seen in the 
school room, at the desk, in the religion, the literature, 
the manners, morals and history of to-day. 



90 STEPHENS MEDAL 

We read, in the annals of the Dark Ages that in- 
tellectual and moral right, of a monastary called La 
Trappe, where deadly crimes were expatiated. " When 
sinners entered it, they made a terrible vow of ever- 
lasting silence, and from that awful moment never 
uttered a word, but daily with their nails dug their 
own graves. When the midnight bell tolled them to 
prayer, they left their solitary cells and moved with 
noiseless step and downcast look, through gloomy 
cloisters and whispering aisles, turning their rosaries 
but never spoke." Such is the penitence, such the 
everlasting silence, to which should be condemned, the 
man whose narrow soul and vicious heart disparage 
or neglect the honorable, almost heavenly influence 
ring woman has exerted, and exerts to bring man- 
kind to that perfection which an All- wise God intended 
hould reach. 

Then let us, who live in the full blaze of this most 
enlightened age in the experience of this world, rem 
lue homage at the shrine of woman, offering there 
the holy incense of our grateful thanks for her good 
deeds, which centuries of ignorance and prejudice 
denied. Should this be clone, but a few years would 
pass, till woman's talents and exertions, which hitherto 
have seemed like flowers that bloom and breathe their 
"fragrance only in the shade ; would, by the kindly sun- 



PRIZE ORATIONS. 91 

light of appreciation, grow to a hardy plant whose 
blossoms would shed a richer perfume upon life, and 
whose fruits would be a greater blessing and a greater 
joy to all. 



GOLDSMITH AS A HUMORIST. 



GOLDSMITH AS A HUMORIST. 



BY GEORGE H. COFFMAN. 



The world has paid her homage to the great, 
Her warriors, poets, and her men of state, 
And oft' times shielded from distress and gloom, 
The hurried tread of genius to the ton 

Yet in the ranks of that funeral train, 
Which bears the nations on to death's dark m 
A form, bowed down by ill contending strife, 
Once passed accross earth's shifting stage of life, 
Whom fortune oft' denied her shining crowns, 
Whose noble deeds, rewarded but with frowns ; 

On whom no kingly favors deigned to smile : 
Whom penury tracked e'en to his funeral ; 
Thus Goldsmith trod life's dreary, desert plain, 
Where hopes and joys lie mercilessly slain, 
Where dread adversity, that cursed simoon. 
Heaps earthly pleasures in a common tomb. 



96 GOLDSMITH AS A HUMORIST. 

Ts this that bright, transparent, genial soul, 
Which, like some mountian lake, reveals the whole 
Of its clear depths, from which, there glittering shines,. 
Half-hidden gems betraying richest mines? 

Did Goldsmith live in that ungrateful age 

Which ill rewarded poet, priest and sage ; 

Which smothered genius with its dark plumed wings,. 

And showered its honors on but lords and kings? 

Could he have climbed, thus from his low estate, 
Up rugged heights to mingle with the great, 
When griefs and debts assailed him on his track ; 
When fame and wealth conspired to beat him back r 

"Twas genius bore him on 'gainst adverse fate, 
With heart dejected but with hopes elate, 
And kept untarnished when alive, his name ; 
When dead emblazoned on the rolls of fame, 
His grave neglected, now is sought in vain, 
Where, undisturbed for years his bones have lain.. 

Xo marble shaft now stands above his head ; 
Can England thus neglect her noble dead? 
Yet, he who oft' had caused the world to laugh,. 
Had carved upon its heart his epitaph. 



GOLDSMITH AS A HUMORIST. 97 

His mortal visage long may be forgot, 
And coming ages seek his burial spot, 
But in each heart his name will be enshrined 
As long as virtue charms the human mind. 

A recent critic has expressed surprise, 
As, oft' in critics' minds such questions rise. 
That Goldsmith, who had trod life's miry ways, 
And mingled with the base through most his days, 
Had kept, unsullied from more vulgar hues. 
The simple robe which graced his modest muse. 

His writings gleam with thoughts so chaste and free 
From all the taints of coarse obecenity, 
That one would think him reared in spheres remied, 
That vulgar thoughts ne'er stained his jeweled mind. 

But here humanity suggests a hint, 
That different casts are made at nature's mint. 
His nature, moulded on a different plan, 
Hid not imbibe the vices of his clan. 

lie studies good and bad. the young and old, 
And from the baser ores he smelts the gold. 
And in these lower scenes of life, though course, 
His sparkling stream of humor takes its source. 



98 GOLDSMITH AS A HUMORIST. 

His characters are low but not unchaste ; 
His humor least offends the cultured taste, 
Though in high life there's many a courteous fool, 
'Tis not a fertile field for ridicule. 

He thus drags human nature from such scenes. 
And lowers her to humors true domains. 
And dresses her with garbs of absurd styles ; 
Makes her distort her face with clownish smiles. 

Engages in her silly, blundering acts, 
And makes her jest unwittingly with facts. 
Thus Goldsmith paints absurdities of life. 
Which oft' he met in poverty's mad strife. 

Men laugh at humors odd similitudes, 
Because they spring from vulgar traits or mc 
They thus compare these absurd characters, 
Which humor makes ridiculous with theirs. 
And triumph in the contrast which they rind 
Between themselves and those of baser in 

But when an author seeks, in men's defects, 
The subjects of his humor, and affects 
To smile at natural faults, or griefs, or w 
He makes at once the entire world his foes. 



GOLDSMITH AS A HUMORIST. 99 

Dean Swift, who scoffed at men's deformities, 
Received the curse which wounded pride decrees. 
Proud human nature is a spiteful maid, 
Whose sanctity intruders oft' invade 
And, share the lashes of the angered dame, 
If they expose her secret faults to shame. 

Poor Goldsmith, who, life's miseries had shared, 
By his associations was prepared 
To speak to troubled hearts in gentle tones, 
And win a laugh from lips which muttered groai 

And though lie drinks with pain life's bitterest cup ; 
Though in his troubled bosom welling up 
Like surging billows on the stormy deep, 
Dread, hunger, anguish and dismay ne'er sle: 

Yet when he seeks some lonely, damp retreat, 
Reviews thes^ scenes of coffee-house or stre> 
He weaves them in, while in his muse's tram 
To dress some comedy or quaint romai 

His harp in hand ; his heart upon his lips. 
His soul's rich music from his fancy trips, 
With humor tinged, with sparkling genius pearh 
He tells his tale of woe to amuse the world. 



100 GOLDSMITH AS A HUMORIST. 

As through the sombre clouds ;i struggling ray 

Of sunshine bursts upon a rainy day, 

His humor flashes from his gloomiest hours, 

And though he treads on thorns, he strews but flowers. 

Xot like those dark, strange volumes of Dean Swift, 
Across whose life such deep-dyed shadows shift ; 
AVhose bitter humor burns through each keen jest 
Like branding irons on some victims breast. 

The works of Goldsmith have a sweeter charm ; 
His joyous humor bodes no mortal harm ; 
He makes by choosing a m rous rule, 

Himself the butt of his own ridicule. 

He to his pen, his comic muse, invokes, 
And, like a scidj turc. piles his masterstrokes 
Until he carves in form somewhat uncouth 
A comedy, a burlesque of "his youth. 

M She Stoops to Conquer " claims no worthier cause 
For its rich harvest of the world's applause 
Than, that it re-enacts, with humor rife, 
A well know scene in Goldsmith's early life. 

Young Marlow here parades across the stage 

The apparition of his youthful age. 

He copied human nature in this plot 

And scorned those counterfits of wit or thought. 



GOLDSMITH AS A HUMORIST. 101 

The sentimental dramas, then extant, 
Which made their heroes cry and storm and rant. 
To raise a hearty laugh was his chief aim, 
And his. success is measured by his fame. 

Though Tony Lumkin's odd amusing tricks 
And comic speeches, /with sound wisdom mix. 
His pr greet< d on the stage 

lighter for an age. 

To feel the thrill that stirs a poet's soul ; 
Tog] that gild his written scroll; 

To sound those depths beneath his magic art, 
Explore the sanctuary of his heart. 

What is it, thus in Goldsmith's simple style 
That forces us with unrestraint to smile V 
What caused him so to hate his venal muse, 
And though grim want assailed him to refuse 
The liberal pay as politicians' hack, 
And turn on mercenary jobs his back ? 

It was his loving philanthropic heart ! 
Which every wail of sorrow caused to start, 
That urg onward to a nobler aim ; 

That gave to him a proud immortal name; 
That to the world bequeathed a legacy, 
Which all inherit, — both the bond and free. 



102 GOLDSMITH AS A HUMORIST. 

He sought to lure, with humors gentle strain, 

His fellow creatures to a higher plane, 

To break the shackles that enchained the poor ; 

To station charity at hungers door ; 

To brand those follies as a public curse 

Which snatch the shillings from the poor man's-purse. 

No logic backed by syllogistic lore, 
Could teach such lessons to the rich or poor, 
As that sly humor sparkling from each page 
Of Wakefield's story, teaches every age. 
As in a crystal pool one sees his form 
And notes some defect or peculiar charm, 
When once before its silver depths he halts ; 
So in this story one may view his faults, 
And see himself as he's by others seen ; 
Deformed and rough, — his morals low and mean. 

These hideous faults, exposed to ridicule, 

Seem worthy only of a knave or fool ; 

Yet oft' they coil within a wiser breast, 

Like hissing serpents in some songster's nest. 

But others see within the pool's clear depths, 

As each before its sparkling surface steps, 

A brighter picture, graced with virtue's charms. 

Around the Vicar's hearth, familiar forms 

Are seen to move and heard to laugh and talk, 

Whose simple merriment wealth's pleasures mock. 



GOLDSMITH AS A HUMORIST. 103 

Here poverty assumes a smiling face, 
And filial love holds joy in fond embrace. 
What a luxuriant store of gracious thought 
Fair fancy here to ignorance has brought ! 

How many cheerless homes have been made bright ; 

How many burdened hearts have beat more light, 

How many dreary hours are rendered gay, 

How many persons laugh their griefs away, 

The young as well as those whose locks are hoary, 

While reading this delightful, charming story. 

Who has not laughed at Moses at the fair, 
The luckless prey of that base sharper's snare, 
From whom, well practiced in such worldly whims, 
He buys his spectacles with silvered rims? 

Or who is not amused at the odd taste 
Which, in that family picture, was embraced 
And which, when 'twas completed, was so tall 
That it was doomed to grace the Kitchen wall? 

This simple story, like a gospel song. 
Applauding right and disapproving wrong, 
Oft' finds an echo in the hearts of men 
Whose base licentious lives, perhaps, have been 
Deemed proof against dull reason's puny might — 
Defiant enemies of law and right. 



104 GOLDSMITH AS A HUMORIST. 

But courted with bright smiles, allured by forms 
'Whose loveliness their morbid fancy charms, 
They feel the tender pathos, of this tale, 
Jiurst o'er their senses like a summer gale 
Upon the bosom of some sluggish lake ; 
And thus their sleeping consciences awake, 
While they, pursuing pleasure thus disguised 
Are into reformation oft' surprised. 

Sterne wrote but for the world's hard earned applause,. 
And, with impatient hand his picture draws, 
Infusing absurd colors through the whole, 
And dressing with odd garbs, creation's droll. 

Then, from behind his canvas, thrusts.his face, 
Distorted with a laugh or forced grimace, 
As if to coax some slow unwilling smiles 
To mount the lips of those who trust his wiles. 

If this does not elicit the reward, 

Which all mankind to humorists accord, 

He takes his brush and with his obscene strokes, 

Dismantles vice, indecency uncloaks, 

Thus in his writings often low and mean, 

An impure presence, undisguised is seen. 



GOLDSMITH AS A HTJMOKIST. 105 

'But Goldsmith scorned these paltry, vicious means 

Of winning favor with such vulgai seen 

His humor is not forced, nor dyed wil 

'.Nought but his fertile genius could \ 

To win a nation's homage and renown ; 

To place upon his head an ivycri 

He strikes sad hearts with his enchanting wand 
And, like those fountains, fed by spriri >nd, 

Which long before were sealed b> wth, 

They overflow with streams of joyous mirth. 

Though griefs oft' cast dark si tnd 

His great heart bled for wretched human kind ; 
And, though his dearest hopes were oft' entombed, 
His friendly gentle- nature always bloomed 
Amid the chilling blasts of life's bleak storn . 
Like some lone, trampled flower 'mid less frail forms. 

In his Deserted Village, he portr 

His father's image in his past 

But in this picture- which his genius paints 

His own soul mingles with its kindred saints. 

" Thus to relieve the wretched was his pride. 
And e'en his failings leaned to Virtue's side 
But in his duty prompt at every call, 
He watched and wept, he prayed and felt for all ; 
And, as a bird each fond endearment tries 
To tempt its new-fledged offspring to the skies, 
He tried each art, reproved each dull delay, 
Allured to brighter worlds, and led the way." 



BIOGRAPHICAL. 



SQCHEP0IT, MISSQUSL 

WILLIAM A. LEXTZ. 

However doubtful the propriety of publishing a 
biographical sketch of those who have not paid the 
debt of nature, the custom is fixed and has the sanc- 
tion of the most learned and honorable men. Our sub- 
ject is a native of Boone county Missouri, and was born 
at Booneton March 30, 1848. When seven years of age 
he was sent to Lanthrop academy, presided over at 
that time by Xewton Searcy. We next find him at 
Walnut Grove academy pursuing bis studies under 
such able instructors as O. Pirikey, L. B. Hoy, J. F. 
Martin and G. W. Leatron. His father early appreci- 
ating the advantages of a liberal education, placed 
him in L^nion academy at York Pennsylvania, where 
he remained one year. After leaving this institution 
he received private instruction from Rev. John Mer- 
ril. In September 1865, he entered the Sophomore 



108 BIOGRAPHICAL 

class of the University. He graduated in 1868, with 
the degree of A. I>, II is oratorical abilty won for him 
the first Stephens Medal ever given. Soon after 
/graduating he commenced thestudy of law hut. failing 
health compelled him to ivlenquisli the pursuit of 
legal lore. ITe is now the wealthiest man to whom the 
this medal has been awarded. In October 18H0, he was 
married, by Rev. B. V. George, to Miss Margaret S; 
Hickman a brilliant and accomplished lady, of Bour- 
bon county Kentucky. Mr. Lentz takes an active 
interest in educational matters. In 1871 he applied for 
and received his Master degree. Mr. Lentz now gives 
his entire attention to agriculture and the rearing of 
-blooded stock. 

BENTLEY H. RUNYAN, * 

Was born, January 17, 1847, in Jackson county Missou* 
ri. His rudimentary education was obtained in the 
common schools. During the year 18^3 in consequence 
of General Ewing's famous order No. It, he removed 
with his parents to Columbia Missouri. Soon after- 
wards he entered the State University of Columbia 
graduating, from the Academical Department, with 
honor, in 1889. He was peculiarly gifted as a speaker, 
possessing a richly modulated voice, and a commanding 
form. Tie was a man of great energy and ambition. 
* Deceased. 



SKETCHES. 109 

It is safe to predict, that had Providence permitted 
him to live, lie would have risen to prominence, and 
become a learned ami influential member of society. 
In 1870 he entered the Law Department of the State 
University, where he soon became noted as a brilliant 
student, his conception of law being remarkably clear 
and concise, lie made it a point, never to pass a sub- 
ject until he had carefully sludiedits relation to law as 
a science. While attending this institution he took a 
very active part in establishing, the Missouri Alpha 
chapter of the Phi Kappa J's/ fraternity, in Colum- 
bia. In 1ST1 he whs admitted to the bar, but still 
continued to give his attention entirely to his studies. 
Yet, when a glorious future spread her tinted skies 
before him. and the temple of fame stood out against 
an azure sky, his spirit took its flight and joined the 
angelic throng above. 

" So vanishes our state, so pass our days ; 
So life but opens now. and now decays ; 
The cradle and the tomb, alas ! so nigh, 
To live is scarce distinguish'd from to die." 

RICHAKD W. GENTRY, * 

Was born, at the well known St. Cloud farm, near Seda- 
]ia Missouri. His primary education was obtained at 
Georgetown. He also attended school at Lexington 
* Decease'!. 



110 BIOGRAPHICAL 

Kentucky for one year. His literary education was 
completed at the University of Missouri, where he 
graduated in 1879, with the degree of A. B. While a 
student he became noted for proficiency in the vari- 
ous departments. Before leaving college halls to bat- 
tle with the world-, he obeyed the promptings of his 
heart, professed religion and united with the Christian 
church. Upon the completion of his collegiate course 
he returnd to his farm near Sedalia Missouri, where he 
remained until April 1881. In the autumn of 1880 he 
was appointed a member of the State Board of Agri- 
culture, by the governor. While a member of the 
board he held the office of secretary. He took a great 
interest in agriculture as a science, and labored earn- 
estly to introduce, new and improved methods, among 
the farmers of his native state. In 1SS1 he received a 
call to the pastorate of the Christian church at Colum- 
bia. His services being universally appreciate, 
the close of the year he received a call for 
period. Other duties requiring his attentk lun- 

tarily resigned his- charge and retired to his quiet 
rural home. In 1877 he was married to Miss M. Tussey, 
a most estimable ladv, a native of Pettis county, Mis- 1 
souri. Mr. Gentry was an earnest christian, and prac- 
ticed what he preached, in the daily walks of life. 
But as he approached the zenith of a grand career it 



SKETCHES. Ill 

pleased the great Omnipotent to place him with that 
chosen few, who allure to brighter worlds and lead 
the way. In his death, — 

" A bright light was eclipsed, 
A noble heart was stilled."' 

JOELS' E. JOHXSTOJS", * 

"Was born June 4,1845, at Antrim, Guernsey county 
Ohio. His early education was obtained in the com- 
mon schools. When but seventeen years of age he 
left a happy home, at the wild call of the bugle, to 
brave the dread terrors of the battle field. He remain- 
ed constantly with his regiment, the 122nd Ohio, until 
the battle of Cold Harbor Virginia, where he was dan- 
gerously wounded June 3, 1864. After remaining in 
the hospital for nearly one year he was honorably dis- 
charged. He then formed the resolution of obtaining an 
education, and with this object in view he commenced 
.to attend school, supporting himself, by teaching 
•during vacation. In the fall of 1869 his parents 
removed to Missouri locating at Kingsville. Young- 
Johnston accompanying them to their Western home. 
In 1870 he entered the Junior Clas3 of the State Uni- 
versity. While attending this institution he wai 
earnest, faithful student, being often commended, by 
the various professors, for his proficiency in the dift'er- 
* Deceased. 



112 BIOGRAPHICAL 

ent departments. lie graduated from the Academ- 
ical Department in 1872. But ere he had commenced 
life's battle, it pleased the great Creator to call him 
to a brighter home beyond the skies. Of him it may 
well be said, 
" Brief, brave and glorious was his young career.." 

MARSHALL, MISSOURI. 

GEORGE F. DAVIS, 

Editor of the Saline county Progress, was born Janu- 
ary 20, 1818 at Lexington Missouri. His father, Wil- 
liam T. Davis, is a prominent educator, and until a few 
years ago, presided over the Masonic college of Lex- 
on Missouri. When nine years of age he entered 
the public school of his native town. He next atten- 
ded a high school at Glasgow. He remained here un- 
til the beginning of t lie great Civil strife. Soon after 
this mighty contest ended he entered the State Uni- 
versity of Columbia, graduating from, the English and 
Latin Departments in 1869. In 1872 he re-entered the 
institution and, completing the course in Greek, took: 
the degree of A. 13. Since graduating at Columbia he 
has pursued a thorough course in law at Washington 
University, St. Louis. Disliking the practice of law 
lie devoted himself to teaching for a considerable time. 



SKETCHES. 113 

He is unmarried. Mr. Davis assumed editorial con- 
trol of the Progress in 1880. It is now one of the 
most ably conducted papers in Marshall. 

QURAY, COLORADO, 

JERROLD R. LETCHER, 

Attorney at law, was born at Marshall Saline county 
Missouri, June 23, 1851. In 1861 he removed with his 
parents to California, After spending eight years in 
the golden west, they returned to S«. Louis Missouri. 
He pursued his studies in the high school and was 
chosen, by his classmates, as their Valedictorian. He 
soon afterwards entered the Academical Department 
of the University of Missouri. As a student he made 
quite a reputation. While a student, he was an active 
member of the Union Literary society and he was 
also a zealous worker in the Phi Kappa Psi fratern- 
ity. He graduated from the University in Jane, 1873. 
During a considerable time he was Editor in Chief of 
the University Missourian, an excellent periodical 
published by the literary societies, f While a member 
of the Senior Class he received honorable mention, as 
having sustained the best written examination in 
"International and Constitutional law." In 1874 he 



t Since discontinued on account of restrictions imposed by the 
University Faculty. 



114 BIOGRAPHICAL 

entered the Law Department and on graduating there- 
from was admitted to the bar. lie then formed a law 
partnership with his father and commenced practicing 
law in his native town. Here by active labor he soon 
built up a large and lucrative practice. Since leaving 
his Alma Mattr, he has ever manifested the deepest 
interest in the cause of education. In. the fall of 1878 
he removed to Colorado and while traveling over the 
state, contributed, to the Saline county Progress, a 
series of articles discriptive of the Southern and Wes- 
tern parts. In 1876 he located at Ouray where he 
has since continued to reside. He was married in the 
spring of 1880 to Miss Kate Ilawpe. of Marshall, Mis- 
souri, a woman of rare qualities of mind and heart. 
But the dark angel of death soon deprived him of his 
beloved companion. He was nominated, in the fall of 
1882, for the State legislature as the standard bearer of 
the Democratic patry and after a sharp contest was 
elected. Upon his return to Ouray, he was tendered 
a grand ovation, by the citizens in appreciation of the 
services he had rendered his section, and the State 
generally in its legislative halls. 

KANSAS CITY. 

FRED W, KUMPF, 

Attorney at law, is a native of Missouri and was born 
in St. Louis August 9, 1860. When he was but five 



SKETCHES. 115 

years of age his parents removed to Kansas City. 
His primary education was obtained in the public 
school. In 1870 lie graduated from the High school. 
Desirious of a more extended scholarship he entered, 
the State University, in the fall of the same year. He 
was a bright student, a fluent speaker and a genial 
gentleman, who made hosts of friends. He gradu- 
ated with the class of '78. A few months after grad- 
uating he sailed for Europe, and spent a number of 
months, as a student, at the celebrated German Uni- 
versity of Heidelburg. He then traveled quite exten- 
sively in Germany, Italy and France, visiting the 
chief places of historical interest. Mr. K urn pi then 
returned to Kansas city and at once begun the prac- 
tice of law and now enjoys a lucrative and constantly 
increasing practice. 

WILLIAM S. COWHERD, 

Attorney at law, is a native of Jackson county 
Missouri, and was born near Kansas City September 
1, 1860. His early education was obtained in the com- 
mon schools. The earnest manner in which he applied 
himself, foreshadowed a life of future usefulness. 
His parents seeing the great advantages of a liberal 
education placed him in the Missouri University of 
Columbia. While a student he was remarkably dili- 



116 BIOGRAPHICAL 

gent and received a very high scholarship He was an 
eloquent speaker and a versatile writer. He graduated 
in 1881. The next year he entered the Senior Class of 
the Law Department graduating with the degree of 
L. L. B. He soon commenced the practice of his 
chosen profession. In 1883 he associated himself with 
Mr J. Campbell also a graduate of the State Univer- 
sity. They have already quite an extensive practice, 
and enjoy the entire confidence of the publie, Mr. 
Cowherd is a cordial gentleman and makes many 
friends. 

ST. LQUIi, 

H. B. HILGEMAX, 

Is a teacher of English and Elocution, at 2415 Xorth 
twelfth Street. He is a native of St. Louis Missouri. 
His parents, believing a liberal education to be the 
best foundation that could be laid for a life of future 
usefulness, early placed him under earnest and com- 
petent instructors. After attending the common 
schools of his native city, he entered the Missouri 
State University, of Columbia, and graduated there- 
from with high honors in 1880. He was awarded the 
Stephens Medal, being adjudged the best orator of 
the Senior Class. He is a man of rare ability, and 
as a scholar, ranks high. He is also an earnest stu- 



SKETcnes. 117 

•dent of general literature, and devotes much of his 
time in preparing a work which he will no doubt 
bring before the public in a short time. He has a keen 
appreciation of the society of the fair sex, and never 
wearies of that gallantry thereto which has marked 
the career of the noblest men of the past. 

PARIS, MISSOURI, 

PAUL ALEXAXDEli, 

Teacher, is a native of Monroe count}*, Missouri and 
was born at Paris December, 14, 1861. His element- 
ary education was obtained in the public school of his 
native town. YVhen fifteen years of age lie entered 
St. Paul's College at Palmyra Missouri. After com- 
pleting the prescribed course, he entered the State 
University of Columbia. He was a good student and 
an excellent linguist. He graduated, in 1883, with the 
degree of A. B. In the following September he was 
elected to fill the Chair of Mathematics at Woodland 
College, Independence Missouri. He filled this posi- 
tion with marked ability. Mr. Alexander has just en- 
tered upon a bright career, and his life's work must 
.yet be written, far down the stream of time. 



118 BIOGRAPHICAL 

WQQDLANS, CALIFORNIA. 

ALBERT MORTIMER ELSTOX. 

The subject of this sketch was born at Columbia, 
Boone county Missouri, January 5, 1861. He was left 
an orphan at an early age. He then made his home 
with his grand parents from whom he received an al- 
most paternal care. He attended the primary schools 
of his native town. In 1876 he accompained his 
grand parents to Woodland California. While here 
he accepted a clerkship, with a wholesale drug house 
for one year. At the expiration of that time he at- 
tended a high school with the intention of entering 
college. In the course of a few months he returned 
to Columbia Missouri and at the commencement of 
the collegiate year matriculated, as a student, in the 
Academical Department of the State University. He 
graduated in 1883 with the degree of A. B. As a 
student he displayed great ability, and sets sails upon 
the stormy ocean of lite under the most favorable 
auspices. 



